Simple Porridge Lunch

I haven't been cooking for the past 3 days! Even though there's no school, I was very busy! Working with the aid of e-mails and Whatsapp messages seemed time-consuming - it took more time to sort things out compared to face-to-face interactions ...

Plus S and I have been going out in the afternoons .... shopping .... movies ... we haven't gone to the movies for such a long time!

Today, I was not going anywhere .....  so for lunch, I made some minced pork porridge with century egg ....

Yummy ...

Light in flavour and comforting :)) 

Sometimes, simplicity is the best! :))

Soft-boiled Eggs

Hmn. It's not easy making soft-boiled eggs, as sometimes the consistency is no right. I like it to be having the custard-like in texture, but sometimes when I do not time it right, it ends up being too watery. My friend S always told me that she liked it to be "three-quarters cooked". Lol ...

Softboiled eggs, kaya on toast, and you char kway .... and of course, coffee 

Today .... I had it soaked in hot water for 8 minutes .... but the egg white still seemed watery. I liked the texture of the yolk, though.

Hoi Tin Lau Lunch

En route home from school, C stopped at my house. She wanted to leave some documents with me so that I would be able to help her sort out some things at school on Friday. She would be on course then, and would not be in school. We then called S to come over too .... and then we headed for lunch at Hoi Tin Lau near my house.

Fried rice
Fluffy and tasty, we liked this 

Spinach noodles 

Very delicious noodles, always yummy :))

Hot plate tofu

It wasn't that it's not tasty ... just that I did not like the chopped onions in the meat sauce as I thought it affected the delicate taste of the tofu .... 

Stir-fried spinach with 3 eggs

I found this dish too watery .... 

It's one very rare occasion when C ate with us, so it was a great fellowship time for all of us. Normally, she would decline all our invitations as she's just to busy and preoccupied with work! Lol!  

Lunch @ Boulevard Restaurant

I bundled the two of them into my car and drove them to Boulevard Restaurant. She shopped for a short while, and then headed to the restaurant for lunch.

Iced lemon tea, and a cup of Chrysanthemum tea 

Prawn dumpling and dry-tossed noodles

There were 5 pieces of dumplings in the soup. Funny, cause in the menu, the noodles and dumplings were served together in the soup. They were served separately to us ... hmn .... we did not query the staff though .... 

Char siew with noodles

The portion of meat was really quite generous! 

Assorted meats with rice

The rice was nicely cooked, soft yet not mushy, and was really quite tasty - subtle, flavourful and aromatic. The meats looked dry, but in fact, they did not taste dry at all. I liked all the 3 items - roasted pork, roasted duck and char siew.  

Pork and shark fin dumpling

Whether there is really any shark fin in there is disputable, lol. But the filling was sure tasty and compact. 

I enjoy the more refined and tasty food here. Price wise, I do not think that it's expensive - RM9.00 for the noodles and RM13.00 for the rice. The dumpling was RM7.90. Not expensive, because we had to pay so much more at places like Canton-i, for example. 

A good place for lunch, or dinner in fact. I'd come back. :)) 

Dry Laksa @ Fu Cafe

There's a whole row of coffee shops at Ban Hock Road .... and we chose to eat at Fu Cafe because S wanted to try the "dry" laksa. 

Dry Laksa, RM6.50

It's a laksa-flavoured stir-fried rice vermicelli, served with sambal, lime, fried-chicken and Dahfa crisps. We found the flavour of the noodles to be too subtle or too confused .... it had to be stronger in flavour. For this reason, I prefer the laksa stir-fry at Courtyard Cafe at Wisma Nation Horizon at Petanak. 

Red Kolo Mee, RM3.00

The kolo mee here is good! Flavourful and aromatic and irresistable; Both S and I enjoyed it.  

Kaya Toast, RM1.20

The kaya toast was so-so; not that great 

Then it's off to school because there were a few deadlines to meet today! More documents to be processed and submitted to the school authorities ....

School's Closed Again

What? School's closed? Hmn ... I hadn't expected that. There are some things that I needed to do though. Students have sat for their exams 2 weeks ago, and this week, our marksheets and exams analysis and report cards are due. And I was having some problems with my form class, regarding the marks entry for one of the subjects, and I needed to have them sorted out and the school's closed? How now?

But anyway, I took time to make myself some breakfast ....

Coffee, soft-boiled eggs, a slice of yam cake made by Second Aunt, and peanut butter and kaya toast

After breakfast, I headed for school ... and was glad to see some of my colleagues there, each busy with their own paper work. I managed to get help of the exams sec, and she helped me key in the marks for a particular subject. However, when I generated the results, it went haywire.

We tracked the problem to its roots - in fact it was my fault. I had wrongly recorded the subject in the class timetable, and the subject teacher had key-in the marks for the wrong subject, and hence it affected the results and the grade scores and the CGPAs.

Finally, however, after much trial and error, we managed to rectify the wrongs .... and I texted my students (thank God for technology!) to get them to check their marks and grades and CGPAs .... phew ....

Though school's closed .... we are still working - some of us in school, others working from home. :))

Three Cups Chicken

I bought a bunch of Thai basil from the market for RM0.50. It has this strong star anise and licorice scent. I was going to cook it in my chicken. I was using breast meat because it's easier to clean. First, I sauteed ginger, garlic and chilli in sesame oil, and then I added in the chicken to sear the meat, before adding some water, soy sauce and cooking wine. Finally, I stirred in a handful of basil leaves .... let it simmer for a short while.

Ta-da! 

Rice, served with Three Cups Chicken. Easy to cook, nice to eat. :))

Creamy Tomato Pasta With Grilled Salmon

It's one of those rare occasions when I get a Saturday off. And today, I chose to hang out at The Spring (where else!). We went browsing at the shops ... and I managed to buy a dress! At half price too! What a bargain! And then it was to the movies. Though Pan received mostly negative reviews, I was quite entertained by it. :))

And then it was to the Food Bazaar for a late lunch ...

Creamy tomato pasta with grilled salmon, RM25.00

The pasta actually tasted quite great! Creamy, and with the prominent taste of tomatoes and infused with refreshing herbs, and it did not feel nor taste too heavy. The grilled salmon was of reasonable thickness, and crisp on the edges. Not bad, I totally enjoyed this pasta.

Egg Fried Rice & Air-fried Chicken

Yup, my eating time has gone haywire. Today, I did not have breakfast .... and chose to make myself a brunch ....

Coffee, air-fried chicken and egg fried rice 

I wanted to finished up some cooked rice in the fridge .... and so I stir-fried it with egg and spring onions, and then air-fried some chicken breast meat which I had marinated overnight. Simple homecooked brunch with coffee! :))

Saigon Fusion

The 4 of us went to Saigon Fusion after work .... The interiors of the shop was dark .... so the pictures do not do justice to the food; please mind their red hues

FOC : A wheatgrass drink given out as a welcome drink; it wasn't sweet and was rather refreshing ... 

Vietnamese drip coffee, RM6.00

We all liked the coffee, which was smooth, well-bodied and yet with a sweet after taste

The condiments 

Beef Pho, RM12.00

The pho was nice (by Kuching standards); thin translucent rice noodles were generous in portions, the soup was sweet and hearty; my only complain is that the soup was not hot enough so that my beansprouts took longer to cook and the basil did not get wilted fast enough for its flavour to get infused with the dish .... And so it took away some of that shiokness of having a bowl of piping hot beef pho .... 

Pork chop, egg & broken rice, RM10.00 

J had this, and she liked it :)); I'll come and try next time. 

Homemade Shao Mai

Second Aunt made shao mai ... and gave me a box! So many pieces inside! And I had it for breakfast for so many days .....

Homemade ..... 

 Yummy

Compact and filled with meat and fish, no preservatives and very tasty. 

Pizza Hut Plaza Merdeka

The gals got off work earlier and headed to Plaza Merdeka. Actually, they had wanted to have Pezzo pizza for lunch. But then, there wasn't any place to sit down and enjoy the meal there. So instead, they headed to Pizza Hut. My first time eating at this outlet here ....

This month, there was at 15% discount for Maybankard holders on a la carte orders. So what we did was that we ordered a large Meat Lover's Pesto pizza - the original price was RM36.90, but after discount, we paid RM31.36.

We added another RM5.00 to get 3 drinks and 3 soups, ... and 4 pieces of BBQ Wings which cost RM8.40.

The mushroom soup was too watery 

Meat Lover's Pesto 

The pizza had a pesto base, so it tasted of basil .... not too overpowering, and the toppings were of reasonable amount

The food and drinks cost us RM44.76, and then we paid another RM4.48 for service charge, and RM2.80 GST. So the total was RM48.25. We had to wait very long for our food even though the outlet was practically empty.

Nice to catch up with the gals after a hiatus of a few weeks!

98 Kopitiam

It was already 1.00 p.m., a bit late for lunch.... and I couldn't think of any suitable place to eat. So we ended up at 90 Kopitiam at Stutong. I found the place to be dirty .... with lots of flies flying around and dogs in the vicinity. The food wasn't nice too, the quality inferior.

Lok Lok, RM3.00

Practically tasteless

Nasi Ayam Penyet, RM7.50

It looked sorry, but luckily the sambal was edible

Claypot porridge, RM4.50

I should have brought them to places like Cafe Cafe or Cheese & Tea where they were rice to eat all day long ..... But in fact, this kiddo missed homecooked food and she would rather I bring her to my house and cook her a meal by myself. Well, next time, I would cook her something.

My favourite kiddo CN was rejected of her application to read law at UKM. In fact, she did not get any offer to any university. So when her friends were all getting ready to go to the various universities in the country, CN appealed for a place .... and just 3 weeks ago, was admitted to UNIMAS for a course in business studies. I had only found out about it recently, to today I arranged to bring her out for a while.

It was my first time to UNIMAS ... I'd never gone there before. While the campus was huge, some buildings looked like they needed a new coat of paint. I also visited the hostel - CN's room was small and generally, the whole place didn't really look comfortable and conducive. Poor kiddo ... hang in there. :))

I Want it Pink

Today's noodles was from Stall 15 Min Kee at the Kenyalang Wet Market. I had enjoyed the "pink" kolo mee the last time I had bought from here. It was pink from the bit of char siew sauce which got into the noodles, and that bit of char siew flavour was so subtle and yet it flirted with my palate. I totally enjoyed the noodles that morning,  and I had looked forward to reprising the experience.

Today, I ordered it "red", meaning that I requested for the noodles to be flavoured with the red char siew sauce. And hmn .... I don't like it at all today.

Today, the noodles were soggy and wet ... and the red char siew sauce made the noodles taste sweet. Hmn ... next time I would have to go back and order it "pink" instead of "red".

Homemade Meat Rolls

My colleague, J is keenly interested in cooking. Her dream is to own her own food business one day. She tells me that she can make anything - I'd just have to name it and she can make it! I'm in awe! Salute to J!

Recently, she's been making meat rolls for sale. She makes them from fresh ingredients which she sources from the market - i.e. the freshest minced pork and fish. 1kg of fish is RM22.00, she tells me, complaining about the rising cost of ingredients.

However, she still markets her wares at affordable prices. 2 pieces of meat rolls - deep-fried and ready to eat - are sold at only RM4.90. 

Homemade Meat Roll

I tried the meat roll today - very compact and springy and quite tasty, and kind of reminded me of Mom's homely cooking. It was very nice, except that meat rolls aren't really my favourite food. I also did detect onions in there, and it's my personal preference NOT to have onions in my meat rolls.

Anyway, I appreciate her effort - much hard work went into making these rolls. She's making stuffed tofu next ... and I can't wait to try them. : )).

Bitter Gourd Chips

I saw these snacks on my colleague's table but I didn't know what they were. Until she offered me some. Bitter gourd chips! They were thinly sliced, seasoned and deep-fried with curry leaves to produce chips which were aromatic, salty, yet left a bitter aftertaste in the mouth. I loved it!

Bitter gourd chips

So I ordered a box .... and it cost me RM15.00. I gave some away to my friends, and they loved it too. Great to munch while chit chatting or watching tv. :))

Rosemary Chicken (Without Butter)

This one is the same as the one I made yesterday ..... only that this was marinated without butter. I merely seasoned the chicken with salt and black pepper, rosemary and garlic, lemon and a drizzle of canola oil.

Seasoned and ready to cook

Yummy 

It was tasty too, just a little drier and bland, compared to the buttered version was saltier, more moist, richer in flavour. I think I preferred the buttered version.

Rosemary Chicken (With Butter)

I was given a sprig of rosemary this morning by my colleague, N. It was a long sprig, and I cut it into two. I planted half in my pot and I hope that it will grow! The other half, I decided to make rosemary chicken with.

Homegrown by N

I chopped up the rosemary with 2 cloves of garlic and mixed it with a dollop of butter. Then I washed and pat dry the chicken - it was a deboned chicken drum. Then I seasoned it with salt and pepper. Next I inserted the butter mixture between the skin and the flesh.

Stuffed rosemary and garlic butter under the skin

Then I airfried it skin side down for 8 minutes at 180 degrees, and then skin side up for another 8 minutes at 180 degrees - with a slice of lemon and some carrots.

My version of Rosemary Chicken

Meanwhile I blanched some mustard and stir-fried rice with butter. Before long, I could have my meal ...

I must say that I'm glad it turned out very nice ... I loved the aromatic flavour of the herbs and also the sour zing that came from the lemon. Very nice. :))

Favourite Vermicelli Stirfry

I loved glass noodles vermicelli stir-fry, and I often cook it for my own consumption ....

Cooking it for dinner .... 

Cooking it for work .... 

But then, I discovered that the noodles got hard when it got cold ..... so hmn ... maybe should blanch the noodles in hot water first next time.

Homemade Quickie Beef Patty

I wanted a good beef patty for my bread. But I couldn't get one, standing at the frozen foods section of my local supermarket. I did not want anything with too much starch and flavouring - too processed. So there wasn't a single product with stood out for me.

Hence, what to do? I'd make my own beef patty. And guess what? It turned out to be really good.

Homemade Quickie Beef Patty 

on 2 slices of bread, cucumbers, tomatoes and served with egg mayo

I bought 200g of lean freshly minced beef ... and to that I added 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, 1 whole egg, a pinch of salt and a pinch of black pepper. I gave everything a good stir. Then I spooned a dollop of mince onto my airfryer pan, and pressed and shaped it.

Then I airfried it for about 8 minutes at 180 degrees. It was cooked by 8 minutes, but then I flipped it over and placed a slice of cheddar over the patty, and grilled for another 4 minutes at 180 degrees. Then it was ready to eat!

I served my beef patty of cucumbers and tomatoes on 2 slices of bread. Squeeze some egg mayo on it .... and it tasted so good sans starch, sans preservatives, sans flavour enhancers. So simple and so easy and I did not even dirty my hands!

Guess I'll be making my own beef patty from now onwards ... :))

Kung Pao Chicken

I made Kung Pao Chicken without Sichuan peppercorns .... even though I did buy some home from my trip to Chengdu. I decided to omit them because I still can't get accustomed to its strong flavour.

What I did was to marinade my chicken in oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, malt vingear, sugar, salt and Shaoxing wine. Then I soaked the dried chillies in water for a few hours. Then I did a quick stir-fry in the wok and thicken the gravy with just a little bit of cornstarch.

Yummy homecooked

And yeah, it tasted great! Just the way I liked it. :))

Ginger Scallion Beef

The beef was fresh and had been sliced already ... I stir-fried it with ginger and scallion; for the seasoning, I used oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, sugar and Shaoxing wine. The beef turned out pretty well :))

Yummy :)) 

It was a great homecooked dinner for me :))

Brunch @ Canton-i

I was going to fly home today .... but of course we would have lunch first. Due to the haze, we couldn't eat at the shops ... hence we headed to the mall. We went to Midvalley City, for which I was glad because I was going to buy another Longchamp from the outlet at The Gardens ... 

Lunch was at Canton-i ....

Char Siu Wanton Noodles

Beef Brisket Noodles

Wanton noodles in soup 

Siu Mai

Har Gao

Custard Lava Bao

Chee Cheung Fun

Oh .. I forgot to take photos of the Char Siew Bao. Till the next hol! :))