Hey foodies! Sorry if you’ve been expecting photos or at least some words from me. But I haven’t touched this space for a long time. Sincere apology from me. I went through a tough time with family matters and I just didn’t have the heart to blog during that period. Sad to say I’m not resuming with new posts but I am happy to have formed friendships through this blog. It has been such a pleasure to have the occasions to meet some of you who shares the passion for food and all forms of food porn. Photography is still a big part of me, therefore I have a photoblog to continue with photo posting. It doesn’t revolve around food anymore but I still need to eat ;) so there will be some food related photos or wet market hunts (I like the commotion and fishy smell!). I’m glad to have been able to share my food journey with all you readers and I hope you guys have enjoyed it too!

– Found new abode at Zoologee –

The Autumn Hokkaido Fair is ongoing from 29 Oct – 12 Nov at Isetan, Suria KLCC. There are lots of Japanese products featured, fresh and processed. Needless to say, most of the items are so expensive ;(

Ohagi

Palm sized daifuku! Sadly I hope to see them shaped into nice intricate motifs like I’ve seen on tv.

Some frozen dessert. I think you just have whack it into the microwave to get a nice treat after work :)

One of the reason I was dragged here is the aroma that drifted from this station! Oh my.. smells so good.. I could detect it 2 floors down! ;D

Frozen scallops thrown directly onto the grill :o That didn’t stop me from buying though. It costs RM8 for 3 pieces of big scallops about the size of 2 50¢ coins, and I’ve never tried scallops with this size ever. So it’s worth a try for me ^.^

Scallops in teriyaki sauce or they call it hotate kushi. I didn’t like the fact that they dump the freshly grilled and sizzling hot scallops into a plastic container. I recommend immediately open it, find the nearest food court and indulge!

Yummy~

I adore everything under the category of Indian food. The sweets, the snacks, the banana leaf rice, the curry, the rotis, the chutney. Yum~ In this time of Deepavali festive mood, I just had to take a stroll along the length of Jalan Tun Sambanthan :D Brickfields is a bust of activities with the street lined up with stalls selling everything from muruku to sarees to cater for this festival.

It is so refreshing to see striking colours in the form of food, clothing, greeting cards and decorations adorn the area. Hip and upbeat Bollywood music fills the air. The crowd, bargaining and walking away with new items in their hands tells you “yup, Deepavali is here”.

laddu

khoya burfi

chocolate coconut bars

almond khoya burfi

halwa

This stall is the Jesal Sweet House, stationed in front of their Jassal Tandoori Restaurant. It is slightly further up from the Sentral Monorail, away from the pack of bazaar stalls. Their pistachio and almond khoya burfi are simply delicious. What can I say, I’m a sucker for anything made from milk :P

Cookies

There are a few makeshift henna parlours which charge RM5/hand to get this beautiful innai temporarily tattoed on your hand. The innai are usually flower motives, which I think is really cool they can make the designs look so intricate.

This stall is selling vegetable fritters which taste really good! I didn’t manage to ask what they are since the seller was doing a brisk business. The fritters are crispy while spongy inside, flavoured with spices and dried chilli. They are located opposite the POS office at the junction of Jalan Berhala. This stall is permanent here, so you will find them around even after this is over.

Hehe this is kinda out of place but I just want to show his expression I managed to capture. The claypot rice stall across YMCA.

All races can experience and celebrate Diwali together :)

Festival of electric lights. The aunty looks happy swinging it around.

~Happy Deepavali~

This is actually a photowalk with some photographer-kakis (learned a lot about street photography!), therefore lots of portrait pic. I tried to pick out as many food-related photos to post here :P

There are 3 Leong Ya Restaurants in the vicinity, all operated by the same family. One on the first row with air-conditioning, and the other two have bigger space sans the comfort of air-cond. They are at the corner in the second row and at the far end. Why so many eh? Doesn’t matter, as long as they serve their signature yummy ji pao gai ^oo^

Their yong tau foo is pretty good too. They come drenched in a sweet thickly sauce. We ordered a mix and each reasonably sized piece is RM1.

Hi, who’s in there?

Paper wrapped chicken! Oh oh.. yummyliciousness unfolds! Despite the glue-ey mess I captured in picture here, the gravy is excellent in flavour and makes me drool when the aroma hits the nose. It has a hint of chinese rice wine and tastes slightly of ginger. The chicken is slowly cooked in the package, absorbing all the flavour and keeping the meat tender. Well worth the price of RM 2.60 per parcel.

Mix stir fried vegetables. Again they use chinese rice wine which works wonder with this kind of dish.

Three-treasured steamed egg. I’m not sure what it’s called, I’m simply naming it :P. It’s a super smooth steamed egg with salted duck egg and century-egg mixed in. Very delicious but the soy sauce is too salty.

For the location, check out KYSpeaks

A delayed post from the 2nd Penang Flogger gathering at Edelweiss Cafe! (Sorry to all who were expecting this post like.. um almost 3 weeks ago >.<) We have to thank Lingzie for making the event happen. Also to the other sponsors of goodies – CK Lam, Criz Lai (lucky draw) and Gill & Jason :) It was truly a night centered on food and mingling among bloggers, getting to know each other at a more personal level. The best moment is when everyone started clicking away their camera when a plate arrives at a table!

Refreshing iced lemon tea.. much needed to quench our thirst after chit-chatting with all the bloggers :P

Then comes our appetiser, pumpkin orange soup with garlic bread and toasted benggali bread with onion and cheese. The soup has a pretty thick consistency topped off with a swirl of cream and dried parsley(?). It was a nice starter with the fragrant toasts, though I wish the soup had at least a hint of orange.

The first dish to arrive at Nigel’s table and needless to say, all the floggers converge to take snapshots!

BBQ pork ribs with sides of french fries and garden salad. The sweet bbq smell really made me drool that time and I was really hungry… The serving portion is also very generous.

Gammon ham served with mash potato, salad and onion gravy :D~

I had the roast leg of lamb served with mashed potato and salad which comes with brown gravy and mint sauce. ahh what can I say. It tastes delicious ^.^ Cooked perfectly and the meat was tender. I liked it better with the brown sauce.

Smoked pork belly with mashed potato and salad on the side. I think this is the raved and must have dish at Edelweiss. The smoked flavour is intense, so if you are put off by the fat… close your eyes and try it for your tastebud to remember :P

The restaurant is also nicely decorated with interesting trinkets and antiques. This looks like a bill tray. Complete with mini lamp post. So you don’t misread your bill! How thoughtful.

Cheese fondue pots! I wanna try cheese fondue!

First aid Swiss flag lamp.

Lol… Boy, do they eat a lot last time! I forgot to count how many levels are the tiffins.

Toilet made attractive.

After the break and some photo taking session, it’s dessert time! The waitress had to tell us to sit down because we were like excited little kids who were everywhere.

Apple flan with vanilla ice-cream. Yummy! There were many pieces of sliced apple which lends a nice texture and it is not too sweet. Together with the cold ice-cream it was a perfect end to the meal.

Well, actually double good end to the meal. We also receive a delicious brownies each from the talented Ah Shui!

Make that triple good end! Tasty tarts wtih strawberry and pineapple jam in a heart shaped container from CK Lam. Thank you!

Check the round up here.

Floggers, bloggers, photobloggers I met:
Ah Shui
Allen Ooi
Alvin Yang
Andrew
Buzzing Bee
Cariso
Chan Lilian
CK Lam
Criz Lai
Gill & Jason
Food POI
Lingzie
Nick Chan
Nigel
PenangTuaPui
Steven Goh
Yi Phing

My parcel is shipped to the USA :) This is my first time joining the second blogging by mail event hosted by Dispensing Happiness.

p/s: Going to post up my part of the Penang Flogger gathering soon. Too busy in the past weeks and laptop send for repair :P

So I’ve been a little occupied lately. And I’m at home in Pg now for a week of mid semester break. Hehe, technically I’ve not posted anything eat-worthy from KL. Sowwy :P Now that I’m home, I’m so eager to use mess up my mom’s kitchen and the lovely oven!

Shaped dough ready to be baked in the oven!

This is a little while back when I experimented with the 65°C water-roux (TangZhong) technique to make bread that stays fresh and soft without using bread improver. With the help of bread kneading function built-in the oven, it was relatively easy to prepare the dough. That is until I had to shape them, because I’m still a novice and I wasn’t able to get the desired shape.

I top the buns with sesame seeds, poppy seeds and pumpkin seeds. You see, I was trying to emulate those healthy buns sold in bakery that are packed with grains and nuts, but they keep falling off ^.^; So I only manage to stick some on top of the buns. Haha~

Yummy and healthy buns.. worth the extra work put in making from scratch :) I gave some to my grandparents while the remaining were wiped off in 2 days. Inside were soft and fluffy while the outside is slightly crusty on the first day. Is that supposed to happen? :P Well it may be due to my oven settings.

I gathered quite a few recipes and here are some good sites:
Pure-Enjoyment (clear instructions on the water-roux starter)
Do What I Like – 65°C Bread Loaf
Café of the East – Japanese-Style Bun Dough

Sorry for abandoning this blog for so long. There’s been loads of tests and assignments, plus the dorm internet connection is just lousy. Sites like google, yahoo and flickr wouldn’t load at all (DNS server problem??). Then I resort to using proxies which solves the problem temporary but it’s kinda slow. uSpot (our uni’s wifi provider) really sucks.

I had the opportunity to try this Blue Moon snow skin mooncake by Chyna, Hilton KL. The lotus and Amaretto paste enclosing the Blueberry Cheese Fenillantine in the center is wrapped with a layer of blue snow skin.

The outer layer was simply soft yet gives a very slight chewy sensation. The combination layers of blueberry filling, cream cheese and amaretto paste simply shouts cheesecake! but the additional layer of lotus paste brings you back to hey, it’s mooncake ^.^ The flavour and texture of the snow skin is excellent. The tangy cheese and sweet lotus is well balanced. Unfortunately I couldn’t really taste the amaretto. For the price RM13.60 per piece (and the size is smaller than regular mooncakes), it’s really satisfaction fulfilled. Yum~

Tunggu KTM? Kita boleh! Sebab tiap hari pun alami dilema ini. Kalau tak boleh pun, apa yang kerajaan boleh buat? KTM Berhad boleh bagi macam-macam alasan.

Yesterday morning I waited 1hr for the bloody KTM. The train was delayed at the Nilai station and the announcer said it will be a 15mins delay. Then it prolongs to 20mins. Then the announcer got nothing better to do & promote KTM’s longer operating hours that day in anticipation of the Merdeka countdown. Then silence. Then much much later than the promised 20mins, the train arrived packed full of load people.

Malaysian International Fireworks Competition 2008

Nebermind… it’s Malaysia’s 51st burfday today. *respect*. Happy Merdeka!

This entry is for Merdeka Open House 2008: Mee & Malaysia event hosted by Babe in the City. Growing up I think the only mee I can really relate to is maggi mee. My mom is the contemporary type and doesn’t cook much traditional food at home. I thought hard but couldn’t come up with a noodle dish which represents my origin. I decided to cook from the recipe of the mee I grow to love and enjoy – lemak laksa or fondly known as Siam laksa in Penang.

I hope this qualifies although the recipe is adapted from the cookbook – Food From The Heart. The amount in brackets are my guestimation because who weighs everything, right? :P

Lemak Laksa
adapted from Food From The Heart, recipe by Puan Sri Siew Yong Gnanalingam

Ingredients:
3 stalks lemongrass/serai, slice the fleshy section.
30g garlic (4 cloves)
150g shallots (3-4)
15g galangal/lengkuas, slice (1 thumb-sized knob)
10g candle nut/buah keras (3-4)
10g fresh turmeric/kunyit, slice
15g dried shrimp paste/belacan
15g dried chillies, soaked in hot water and blended fine
2 stalks ginger flower/bunga kantan, finely sliced
5 pcs kaffir lime leaves/daun limau purut, finely sliced
250ml coconut milk/santan
Cooking oil
350g fish, preferably wolf herring/ikan parang
1L water
Laksa noodle or rice vermicelli/bee hoon, scalded and drained

Garnishing
200g bean sprouts/taugeh, quickly scalded, drained and keep aside
Mint leaves, clean and pluck out each leaf for use
Cucumber, julienned

1.    Steam fish and de-bone. Break up the fish meat and keep aside. Keep the fish stock.
2.    Blend lemongrass, garlic, candle nut, shallots, galangal, turmeric and belacan. Keep aside.
3.    Heat oil in a large wok and fry blended spices and blended chilli till fragrant and remove.
4.    Boil water in a pot. When boiling, add ginger flower slices, kaffir lime leaves, fried chilli spices, mashed dish meat and fish stock. Add salt to taste.
5.    Boil for 15 minutes. Add coconut milk, bring it back to boil and put aside.

To serve
1.    Put laksa noodle in each bowl.
2.    Pour hot soup over noodles and top with bean sprouts, cucumber and add the tofu.

Note:
1.    Outer part of ginger flower and upper stalk of lemongrass can be added to boiling water for added aroma. Remove before adding the fish.
2.    I didn’t use fish when I prepared this. I added a cube of ikan bilis stock to the soup and reduced the amount of water to 750ml

Thanks for hosting this patriotic event, BabeKL! ^.^