Inspired by Porridge Steamboat

Porridge steamboat is a new thing in KL. There used to be plain porridge steamboat, though I think the porridge is lightly flavoured with chicken stock; but a newer trend in KL would be the pumpkin porridge steamboat, where mashed pumpkin is added to the porridge broth.

Over here in Kuching, I do not know of any outlets that sell porridge steamboat. Hence, we have to resort to making our own.

Mom made a pot of pumpkin porridge broth, then we added lots of stuff in it. We had homemade fish and prawn balls, fresh prawns, beef slices, chicken slices, wantons, egg and spinach.

The porridge was superb. Yum ;)

Sabah Style Fish Paste Soup @ Wang Full Food Centre

This morning, we went to Wang Full Food Centre at Jalan Petanak, Kuching for breakfast.


What my parents like there is the Sabah Style Fish Paste Soup. It is basically fish balls and fish cake slices, vegetables and seaweed in a clear soup. The "special" order comes with little squares of fish maw, and costs RM6.00. The regular version has no fish maw and sells for RM5.00.

Sabah Style Fish Paste Soup Special

Sabah Style Fish Paste Soup Regular

The soups are quite umami, while the fish balls and fish cake slices are very Q. The soups are served with dry-tossed noodles, topped with a spoonful of flavoured minced pork and chopped spring onions. The noodles are quite springy and bouncy, and is quite moist as there's plenty of clear gravy at the bottom of the bowl. Mix well before you tuck in.

Dry-tossed noodles

The noodles and soup are served with chilli padi in soy sauce. I think I would have preferred some sort of vinegary ground chilli with my fish cakes and fish balls, and pickled cut red chilli with my noodles, instead of the soy sauce. Hmn.

At 10.00 a.m., all the patrons at this coffee shop had the noodle & the fish paste soup. The lui cha 擂茶 stall was operating at the front corner of the shop but no one seemed to be ordering it. Guess not many people like the bitter Hakka delicacy. The economy rice stall was just starting to operate.

Miniature Rice-Wrapped Peaches

Second Aunt made these miniature Rice-Wrapped Peaches.

Each is only 6 cm long and about 1 cm thick. They are so cute that I can't resist snapping a shot. Second Aunt's Rice-Wrapped Peaches are compactly filled with glutinuos rice, finely diced pork, bean curd, dried radish, and toasted peanuts. They are definitely one of my favourites!

Myojo Ramen Char Mee Extra Spicy

One of my favourite instant noodles is the Myojo Ramen Char Mee Extra Spicy. This instant noodles is a product of Singapore.

I lke this instant noodles because the noodles are really springy. The flavouring comes in 2 sachets. One is a reddish seasoning oil, and I think it is this oil that provides the a fiery kick. The second packet is the seasoning powder, and I normally use only half a packet as I do not like my noodles to be too salty.

What I did today for lunch was really simple. Cut and wash sweet cabbage. Boil water. Blanch cabbage. Dish out and drain excess water. Add 2 drops of sesame oil to the cabbage for flavouring and toss. Next, add the noodle cake into the same pot of boiled water. Cook until noodles soften. Drain water. Add seasoning oil followed by seasoning powder and toss well. Place the cabbage atop the noodles. Then slice barbecued pork thinly and garnish.

.. Yum ..

This is one of the ways I like to eat my noodles. Cheers!

Tied Pork Knuckle

I've had this at W****'s a couple of times already. It is cold cut, usually served as an appetiser. Before W****'s, I had never seen pork being served this way. Mom has certainly never made it at home. And I cannot recall ever eating it anywhere else.

This is a cross section of the Tied Pork Knuckle.

Halved lengthwise and then sliced thinly

I can't write much about it, simply because I don't know much about it, except that the process of making it is arduous and that one of its ingredients in its making is wine. I googled this dish, but there wasn't much write up except for one. So you can read the details here. Ciao!

Easy Muffins On Merdeka Day

The first part of my morning was dedicated to celebrating the nation's birthday. I was asked to go to the Indoor Stadium Miri to attend the state level National Day celebration. I was there at 7.00 a.m., but the event only started at 8.30 a.m. I sat for an hour and a half waiting for the arrival of dignitaries. Don't you think it was a waste of time? Luckily I brought along a story book to read.

The finale

As soon as the event ended, I had the day to myself. Yippee. The girls went out again, for breakfast, shopping, and then spent the afternoon playing in the kitchen. Lol.

Baking isn't one of my favourite things to do, but then, I just wanted to attempt making some muffins, after being convinced that it was as easy as ABC.

First up, we had 1/2 kg of muffin pre-mix. This pre-mix was imported all the way from Sibu! W**** had brought it over from her last trip. There were many flavours to choose from, such as orange, pineapple, blueberry and so on. Yesterday, we tried making a batch of blueberry muffins.


Then, we needed 1/2 a bar of butter. If the flour was from Sibu, then the butter was from New Zealand. Lol.


The butter was melted over a low fire.


Then, crack four eggs into a mixing bowl.


Pour the pre-mix and the melted butter and the eggs well in the mixing bowl. Give it a good stir. You can see the tiny blueberry bits in the batter.


Line the muffin trays with paper cups.


Fill up the cups with the batter. We found that to achieve a perfect height later on when the muffins were cooked, the batter had to fill about three quarters of a cup.

Finally, pop the tray in the oven and bake till browned. I think we took 20 minutes to bake our muffins.


We could make 12 muffins from 1/2 kg of the pre-mix.


It was quite fun, and really quick to bake those muffins. Excited by the success, we proceeded to make another batch of pineapple muffins. Lol.

Between blueberry and pineapple, all of us preferred the pineapple muffin which was yummier. I liked biting into the tiny pineapple bits, which burst with extra pineapple flavour. ;) Plus, the muffins were not too sweet, and the texture was quite fluffy. So for amateur bakers, this is one item that you may want to try baking.

Merdeka Eve Lepak @ Soho

The girls went to Soho Irish Bar & Bistro on Merdeka eve for drinks and lepak. It was pretty happening there.

The girls decided to go non-alcoholic. One fantastic concoction is the milkshake. This one's called Strawberry Surprise.

Boring old me whose not feeling that well stuck to a boring old hot cup of jasmine tea. Had I been well enough, I'd have a bottle of iced cold beer. Lol.

The girls wanted some finger food to go with the drinks. Nachos were the first item in their list. Well, I pinched a bit of the corn chips & the chilli. It was found to be spicy, with a faint hint of herbs for flavouring, but extremely salty.

The girls also ordered a platter of calamari & onion rings, served with crinkled fries and tartare sauce. The pretty-looking rings were onions. The clumps were the sotong. Lol. The girls did not really like the fried stuff, though they took a strong liking to the tartare sauce. The girls asked for the more sauce, but too bad, there weren't anymore. The waiter gave us some Thousand Island sauce instead.


The next item that the girls tried was the Quesadilla. There were four slices per serving. I kinda like this filled and toasted tortilla, though I could not really make out the filling. It was dark inside the bistro & I could not see what I was eating at all. I could only guess that there were lettuce, chicken, mayo, and perhaps a bit of avocado. The quesadilla was served with a tangy tomato & pineapple salsa, which was quite yum.


Well, the girls had fun catching up that night. I, for one, enjoyed the ambience and the music. The bill came to RM88.20, inclusive of drinks, taxes and charges. Thanks to Girl J**** for the treat ;p.

Would have to go back when I'm fit and healthy again as the grills looked really tempting ;p.