Homemade Belgian Waffles

WWe bought a snack maker which had interchangeable plates - so I could now grill my sandwiches and make waffles!

Grilled Sardine Sandwiches

Today, we made Belgian Waffles for lunch. Mom used this recipe from Food.com. You can check out the recipe here.

Source : http://www.food.com/recipe/the-bestest-belgian-waffles-63071

Mom mixed the ingredients together while I did the baking; the mixture was not too thick and I could see tiny air bubbles in there; I could also see the batter fluff up while cooking; So this recipe made rather light, soft, and chewy waffles.

Well, basically the waffles can be eaten with anything - today we had ours with butter, some good old peanut butter and Nutella. 

Fresh from the waffle iron .... 

But I think the bestest filling was ice-cream!! I sandwiched a scoop of vanilla ice-cream in my waffle ... Sigh ... Sweet and fulfilling. Happy! 

Cantonese-style Noodles @ Sisters Cafe 姐妹园

A few of us came here for lunch the other day and we found the food here to be pretty good! We also liked the fact that food was served reasonably quickly pin ordering. That day, I had the Cantonese-style Kueh Tiaw, RM6.00.

Cantonese-style Kueh Tiaw

What I liked:
1) The kueh tiaw was well-fried and the portion was huge!

2) The gravy had good consistency, well-flavored and tasty.

3) Beef slices were tender and reasonable in quantity.

4) Plenty of greens for some added bite.

5) The eatery is air-conditioned.

The only setback would probably be the horrendous traffic at lunch time as it's located opposite Chung Hua Primary School No. 4 and at 1.30 p.m. when school's out, it would take at least 20 minutes to get  from the shop to the main road!! Other than that, this seemed like a good place to eat good food at a reasonable price.

Luicha @ Big Mouth Food Centre, Kuching

I asked Mom what she wanted to eat, it being Mother's Day and all. Mom simply requested for luicha. So, I brought her to Big Mouth Food Centre. At about 11.00 a.m. on Sunday, business was brisk - many eating in and many taking away. The vegetable trays were already empty, but orders keep coming in.

Small bowl, RM5.00

The vendor, we observed, were replenishing the various types of vegetables that had finished, shredding and cooking on the spot. By the time we got our food, it was a good 20 minutes later. 

As the bowls were set before me, I caught the refreshing whiff of the herbal broth and my mouth watered. Yummy. So, I tasted the broth first. It was not as thick and robust, if compared to the famous one at Green Road. This one, in comparison, seemed more diluted. It was not bitter too, just 甘(guan); the broth was served hot but not boiling. So for me, the broth here wasn't nice to drink on its own as compared to Green Road's.

In the other bowl, there wasn't much rice lining the bowl, for which I was happy about; the rice was light purple in color, and was soft. Over the rice were a generous serving of vegetables - there were long beans, cangkuk manis, cabbage and leek - and preserved radish and roasted peanuts. Did I detect minced dried prawns too? I think so actually. I mixed everything up and took a spoonful, liking pretty much everything I had tasted. 

Then, I poured some soup into my rice bowl and found it much tastier eaten like that; so that was how I finished up the rest of the meal. 

Mom and I enjoyed our luicha anyway. ;)) 

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

Yesterday was polling day, and aside from going to the polls, I was having a quiet and leisurely day at home. So I decided to make pulled pork using the crock pot or the slow cooker. I read up on many recipes, and ended up adapting from a few of them ....

For a kilogramme of pork - Mom bought a chunk of loin meat (I think!!) - I used 4 Tbsp of brown sugar, 2 Tbsp of chilli powder, 2 tsp coriander; 2 tsp cumin; 4 tsp of salt; 1 tsp of ground black pepper; with this mixture, I rubbed the pork and let it marinate for a while.

For the sauce or the cooking liquid, I used 1/3 cup of apple cider, 2 1/2 Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup chicken stock.

Next, I sliced up 2 large onions and 4 pips of garlic and 3 tomatoes (skinned). These lined the base of my crock pot. On top of these, I placed my meat and the only I poured in the sauces. These cooked 8 hours on low in the crock pot.

8 hours later, the meat was drained and shredded by hand. Indeed it was tender enough to shred easily; the meat was really tasty, having absorbed all the flavours from all the other ingredients.

The meat, pulled. 

It was tender though slightly dry because the meat was too lean; a good cut would be the shoulder - I don't know how to say it to the butcher's in Hokkien or Mandarin, because this would be the cut I'm buying the next time I want to make this again.

In the crock pot was all the liquid, which was sieved and thickened with flour. And I mixed it with the shredded pork ...

Ooh, now looking moist and yum ...

The pulled pork could be eaten in many ways ... Last night I had it with coleslaw in a sandwich. This morning, I had it toasted in a mini baguette ...

Grilled with cheese .... 

Even Mom said it was delicious!

I'm pretty happy with the result of this recipe; might just repeat it soon!

When Friends Get Together ...

We were at C's house for a pot bless dinner. It's rather interesting that no two dishes were the same, though we never discussed what to bring. 

The table filled with so much food, mostly homecooked. 

From top left, clockwise : Pan-fried okra, beef patties, steamed pork ribs stew, Thai-style papaya salad

From top left, clockwise : Tempoyak chicken soup, pineapples, vegetables salad, roasted chicken

From top left, clockwise : mixed vegetables, meat rolls, homemade layered cake and mocha slices for dessert. 

It was a nice get-together. Looking forward to the next one ... 

Idealite Bak Kut Teh

I was reluctant when PH asked me to join her for a meal at Idealite. Hmn ... I guess I was certainly not craving for clean, wholesome food. Lol. But PH was persistent, and had been asking me for days .... and so finally, we went there for lunch after work one day.

Bak Kut Teh served with brown rice

Initially, I had planned to eat Lei cha ... but then changed my mind to try the Bak Kut Teh instead. Of course, nowhere was bak kut (pork ribs) to be found .... lol! In place of meat were an assortment of mushrooms, tofu, vegetables and half a hard-boiled egg in a clear herbal broth. The broth had licorice flavour, and thus was a little sweet to the palate. I found the flavour to be a bit strong, to be truthful. Of all the ingredients used, I was most impressed with the wolfberries - which were sweet and totally enjoyable.

 Another look into my bowl .....

This meal was RM16.90, and there was service charge and taxes as well ... so all in all, I paid about RM20.20 inclusive of a drink. Quite pricey. 

Freshly Baked Buns @ Hi-Bread

We were supposed to go eat laksa at Chong Choon, Abell Road. We went in 2 cars because I wanted to head for work after that. But upon reaching there, Dad decided to drive home because there was something obviously wrong with his car! A foul smell emitted from the engine, and I too was worried that Mom and Dad would be stranded in town later on. So off the folks went home without breakfast, and I could only pray that they would get home safely.

Instead of laksa, I headed to Hi-Bread which was just around the corner at Jalan Petanak, and I decided to buy some bread for the folks. Of the many types of buns sold, I chose to try the buttermilk buns (recommended by Hans earlier), and also the raisin buns .... each were RM1.20.

Buttermilk & Raisin buns, RM1.20 each

Cross-sections ... 

Back at home, I had the buns cut - the raisin buns were of course devoid of any filling .... but the buttermilk filling was generous, sweet, rich and satisfying. The buns were really soft of course, because they were fresh from the oven. The folks too, loved the buns. :))