Crispy Little Fish

"Only hardworking people get the chance to taste homecooked food at the lowest price". Agree? How many of us will buy these tiny fishes, averagely with 2" body length from the wet market? And how many of us will take our time to cut, merinate and cook these tiny fishes? It's a tremendous process if one doesn't master the skill. Although a kilo of this tiny fish just cost a few ringgits, but I'll just surrender by looking at the processes. Especially the cutting process, which is very time consuming.

Oh yes, by the way, I'm not too sure what is the name of this fish. We just called it "Pek To Kang" in Hokkien. If really want to translate into English, I will call it Little White Tummy Fish. :) The fish is in very attractive shinny-white color.

To cook this dish, first you have to cut and clean the head and stomach of these little fishes. Then merinate the fishes with turnmeric powder, pepper and sea salt for about 30 minutes. After that, get the fishes coated with a layer of corn starch and deep fry in the hot boiling oil till golden brown.

To eat the fish, you just need to remove the centre bones like this.

I finished up the whole plate on my own. :) Mom specially kept some for me.

Anniversary Lunch @ Little Cottage Cafe

19th of December was our wedding anniversary. It is our fourth anniversary. We celebrated this memorable day 2 days later on 21st December, coincidently it was the same day as Winter Solstice. Hubby & I just had our simple anniversary lunch at Little Cottage Cafe.

We went to the old outlet at Burmah Road. They have another branch at Gottlied Road. The cafe mainly serve Western and Italian cuisine. You can either order their A'la Carte or 5-Course set lunch & dinner. We were seated upstairs. They have the typical English-style interior deco, which is nice and cozy inside.

Hubby & I ordered that day's special 5-Course sets. The set was inclusive of bun & butter, mushroom soup, main course, dessert and coffee or tea.

Bun & butter and mushroom soup was served a short while after we placed our order.

Hubby's main course, the grilled fish with caper sauce. The dory fish fillet was grilled and served with creamy sauce made of caper berries. The presentation was good, but the dory fillet tasted so so only, like those frozen dory fish that sell in Hypermarket.

I ordered the Spicy Portuguese Chicken. The deboned chicken thigh was merinated with spice before grilled. I can taste the turmeric smell. :) As you can see, the chicken was slightly burnt. The spice sauce was their homemade sauce that tasted a little bit spicy and a little bit sour. Not bad, quite appetizing.

Then each of us got a tiny cup of peach pudding jelly and a cup of coffee.

Actually I wanted to try their Tiramitsu, but too bad, both of us were full after the meal. May be we took too much of glutinous rice balls just before we went out for lunch. The bill just cost us RM46.80. Haha...a really thrifty anniversary meal for us.

Little Cottage Cafe
Address: 96A, Jalan Burmaah, 10050 Georgetown, Penang.
Tel: 04-2286218
Business Hour: 11.00am to 3.00pm/6.00pm to 10.30pm (daily)

X'mas present from Foodbuzz ~

Hi, I'm sure everybody's looking forward for X'mas now...so merry X'mas everybody!

Today afternoon I went back home to have lunch with hubby and coincidentally a mail was delivered by postman. It was addressed to me, and seems like foodbuzz sent me a mail! So I hurriedly open up the package and guess what? Foodbuzz just sent me Moo minicards! A tiny little box filled with a range of colorful photos and my name and website printed on the back!

I really love the tiny little cards. They are just gorgeous and I feel reluctant to give them away!

In the end, I sorted out the cards and kept a unique set for myself and the rest...well, I plan to distribute to my friends and family.

Hubby and I plan to go out for dinner tonight. I guess a lot of people will do the same. :)

Fried Carrot Noodle

Recently, I've tried several cooking using different types of organic noodle. I use them to fry, to cook noodle soup, or even "mee rebus".

Organic carrot hi-protein noodle is another good option to replace the yellow noodle. I use the same brand as this. According to the info printed on the packaging, the noodle is made from certified organic hi-protein unbleached flour and organic carrots which are packed with fibre. Carrot is rich in disease fighting flavonoids and helps to protect night vision and promote good skin health. Vitamin A and beta carotenes found in carrot may prevent cataracts, which is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. It will boost your nutritional intake, and also satisfy your taste buds.

Fried Carrot Noodle
Serves 2

Ingredients:


2 pcs of Organic Carrot Noodle
Some cabbage, cut into bite size
14 small prawns, shelled
half onion, sliced
2 clove of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp of chili paste
4 tbsp of light soy sauce
half tbsp of dark soy sauce
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. To prepare the noodle, just add the organic noodle (x2 pcs) to boiling water and cook for around 5 minutes until soft. Then, rinse in fresh water and drain.

2. Heat some oil in a wok, and saute onion and garlic till fragrant.

3. Add in prawns and and cabbage to stir fry. I let the cabbage saute for a while until it's cook.

4. Stir in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and chilli paste to mix well.

5. Pour in the noodle and fry till all the ingredients mix well. Add a little bit of water if it's too dry.

Chicken Soup With Mee Suah

I learned from a nutritional talk that traditional Chinese herbs are believed to have high nutritional value. Herbs have high minerals contents, which is one of the essential nutrition to our body. If you notice, Chinese usually boil those herbs with pork, mutton, beef, duck and chicken, which are the important sources of protein. The minerals itself, if left alone, will not have much impact to our body. Only with the help of protein, our body can absorb the nutrition.

From the initial mee suah in herba soup, I've made another attempt on this new recipe, Free Range Chicken Soup With Mee Suah. Now a days, I used to buy a free range chicken during my weekly marketing. Normally one kampung chicken will cost around RM13. Although it's more expensive, but I strongly believe it has higher nutrition value, and low in Steroid. It is a wise investment for health. Don't you agree?

This is another simple healthy recipe for a working woman. Try this out and you'll able to taste a bowl of delicious and healthy noodle soup. Hubby and I love this very much!

Chicken Soup With Mee Suah

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 teabag of A1 Chicken Soup Essence

Half kampung chicken, skined, fat removed, and chopped into 2 pcs

5 cloves of garlics, skinned

8 red dates, washed

2 flat tbsp of wolfberries, washed and drained

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

900ml of hot boiling water

5 pcs of mee suah

Instructions:

1. Pour in the hot boiling water into the slow cooker. Add in all the ingredients except mee suah.

2. Let the soup boils under high heat for 4 hours and turns to auto mode for the last 2 hours.

3. Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook mee suah and drain. Serve in 2 bowls.

4. Laddle few scoops of soup and pour over the mee suah.

We couldn't stop slurping the chicken soup, it is so yummy!

7 Facts About Little Inbox

Elinluv, Cariso, After Giovani and Food Paradise tagged me on 7 Facts about me and passed me the awards too. I've doing the same tag - 8 Random Facts About Me. However, I realise that I should link the 7 facts to food in this makan blog, rather than the personal facts like the earlier one.

The awards:

7 Facts About Little Inbox:

1. I love cooking, just discover this recently. I seldom stepped into the kitchen before married.

2. I like to eat. I rarely loss my appetite.

3. I'm not a picky eater. I eat almost everything, except those "exotic" food.

4. I restrict myself from taking Maggie/Cintan/Ibumie/Har mee instant noodle and yellow noodle. I go for vermicelli, mee suah, organic wheat noodle, spaghetti and angle hair.

5. I enjoy my breakfast very much when hubby cooks me a not-so- healthy Ramly burger with fried egg and bake bean.

6. On my working days, I used to take my lunch at mom's place. *Wink Wink*

7. I started to prepare dinner at home pretty cosistently on every working day for almost 10 months. :)

Spicy Prawn Noodle @ Teow Chew Meng

Just after the Hari Raya Haji holiday, the UL auditor came again to spot-audit our products. He comes on quarterly basis. I'm the one who's in charge to host the auditor. This round I just brought him to dine in somewhere near our company. We went to Teow Chew Ming at Sunway Tunas. Instead of ordering the normal food that I used to have like Mee Suah Tao and Tom Yam noodle, I opt for their spicy prawn noodle. I really crave for prawns at that moments. I love big prawns, very very much. :P

My prawn noodle took longer time to serve compared to his seafood bee hoon soup and our side dishes green apple tofu salad. Initially I thought the spicy prawn noodle was the one like Penang Hokkien mee, but I was wrong. It's the spicy & sourish prawn noodle like what I cooked previously. I was impressed with the 3 large prawns + 1 gigantic prawn. Yuhoo! It perfectly fulfilled my requirement. The gravy is absolutely thick with tomato puree. I managed to taste the 3S- sweet, sour and spicy! It's a very appetizing noodle stuff. The super big plate of prawn noodles came with a generous serving of yellow noodles, lots of tomato slices, some lettuce besides the prawns. Most importantly, the prawns were very fresh with sweet & tender meat. Finishing up the prawns was my target rather than to complete the whole plate of noodles. For your info, yellow noodles has never been my favorite.

Wonder why I ate prawn noodles at Teow Chew Ming rather than the famous Mee Udang stall at Teluk Kumbar? Hah, for a cozy environment and a convenient trip, I guess. Although a plate of spicy prawn noodle cost for RM15, but the prawns alone worth that price.

Restoran Macinta Hai Lam

Last weekend, as usual , FIL brought us for a simple dinner before we headed back to Penang. He drove us to hunt for home cooked style "Chu Char" 煮炒. He is a thrifty man, so he always emphasize for average quality and reasonable price food when dining out.

This time we went to Macinta Hai Lam which is located at the row of shop houses directly next to the Billion Super Market. This restaurant serve halal food, and that's the reason why you can see lots of Muslim customers. I noticed those Indians and Muslims are really fond of Chinese food. Some of them ordered Chinese dishes to eat with rice, and some of them ordered Western food (chicken chop) & local delights (fried rice or noodle).

We ordered fish curry. The whole medium size black pomfret was served with lady's fingers. The curry is type of soury curry with lots of grounded shallots. Hence, the gravy is thick. It goes well with rice. The serving was huge for 3 of us.

The mixed vegetables with fishballs, prawns and chicken fillet. It is just a normal dish.

Home style fried chicken with prawn crackers. The chicken pieces were well-marinated, and perfectly deep fried, and it was not oily. However, the prawn crackers were really below average, cuz some of them not very crispy.

Well, with the price of RM27, average quality food and large servings, we really can't criticize much. It's hard to find such cheap food in Penang. Agree?

Meat Ball Spaghetti Bolognese

This is what I cooked for lunch in line with our "no rice" Sunday. It's nothing new, but it still remains as our favorite dish since I started to cook. :) I used too add different ingredients to it. For example, potato, fresh brown mushroom or white button mushroom. But today, I just stick to the original taste as I don't have any fresh mushroom in the fridge. Also, I back to Maggie premix sauce rather than Prego, cuz I found that it is thicker.

Hmm...got one suggestion from hubby that may be I should try to cook seafood spaghetti next time. Ok, provided he sponsors fresh raw seafood then. Haha...

Meat Ball Spaghetti Bolognese
Serves 2

Ingredients:

200 gm of egg spaghetti
200gm minced pork meat (you can use either beef, pork or chicken)
1 teaspoon of salt
a small bowl of Canola oil & some extra virginn olive oil

A) Marinate ingredients:

2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
2 tablespoon of chopped shallots
1 egg
Dash of white pepper

B) Sauce

1 packet of Maggie bolognese sauce mix.
Remark: the sauce mix is the serving for 4 person. However, I find it just enough for 2, as I like more sauce.
1 1/2 cup of water
half onion, sliced
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Instructions:

1. Marinate minced pork with A). Let it stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Heat some Canola oil in a wok. Scoop minced pork into balls using a teaspoon and fry in the wok. Keep the fire to medium.

3. Remove fried meat balls and set aside.

4. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the boiling water. Add spaghetti and cook for 8 minutes (refer to instruction on the packing) and drain.

5. Heat 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a wok. Fry sliced onion and chopped garlic until fragrant.

6. Pour in water, and add the Maggie mix. Stir and bring to boil.

7. Reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens.

8. On a plate, add cooked spaghetti, and put few meat balls on top.

9. Scoop the sauce and pour on top of the spaghetti.

Spicy Fried Yam Cake

I'm sure many of you have tried fried koay kak, fried sago kuih, and even fried radish cake in the way like fried koay teow. But how about fried yam cake? Followed by my previous post on pan-fried yam cake, 2 days ago I found myself a bit adventurous to make a different attempt. I tried to cook my yam cake similar to fried koay kak. Sound interesting? :P

Spicy Fried Yam Cake:
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 big plate of yam cake, cut into small cube, pan-fried till crispy
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp of dried shrimps, soaked, drained and coarsely chopped
2 tbsp chopped preserved radish (chai poh, the salty type)
2 handful of bean sprouts
1 stalk of spring onions ( only the green part), cut into 2" length
2 Omega-3 eggs
Canola oil to cook

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili paste

Instructions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and fry the eggs. Scramble the egg till cooked. Remove and set aside.

2. Heat 3 tbsp of oil, add chopped garlic and fry until fragrant.

3. Add the chai poh and dried shrimps and saute until fragrant. Add chili paste until mix well.

4. Add in the pan-fried yam cake, dark soya sauce and light soy sauce.

5. When well mixed, return the pre-fried eggs to combine.

6. Add in the bean sprout and spring onions. Continue stir fry.

7. Dish out and serve hot.

How does it taste:

The pan-fried yam cake cubes is more solid and firm compared to normal koay kak. However, you can taste the natural sweetness of the yam. If you like yam, I'm sure you will like this. All the ingredients combined very well. Unlike steamed koay kak (just consist of flour, tasteless), the original steamed yam cake already contained dried shrimp, shallots and yam cubes, seasoned with sea salt and pepper. So, overall the fried yam cake is more flavorful. If you pay attention, dried shrimps and preserved radish were added to further enhance the flavor. You'll taste the fragrant in every mounthful. We love it! :) I'm happy it turned out fine.

Tao Cuisine And Lounge @ Auto-City

Recently, hubby & I dining out less frequent as we previously did. Besides the economic reasons, I'm opting for more healthy home cooked meal. I'm currently in the progress of touching up some precious knowledge in nutrition. :) I found it very interesting.

Ok, back to the topic. This is another back-dated post, which was pending since last August. We dropped by Tao for an enjoyable dinner on our way back from SP. We didn't call for reservation, but we were lucky to get a table on the crowded Saturday night.

Tao is a place serving Japanese food buffet style, where you pay a fee to taste all the food that the menu's got to offer. There's no limit to the number of orders that you make. The only limiting factor is the time. :)

Mitoyaki Scallop. We love this very very much. The sweet, sour & slightly spicy sauce is really appetizing. We couldn't stop ourselves to place 2nd and 3rd order. :)

Tako Sunomono. Squid is always my favorite whenever visiting a Japanese restaurant.

Abalone slices in Mayonese.Taste is so so, not sure why they put the colorful bits there.

Teppan Smoked Duck Breast.

Grilled Salmon. Taste good but real small portion. If you are a fish eater you'd like to order more of these.


Golden Fried Dumplings. Nothing special on this.


Kushiyaki...some sort like seafood satay.


Miso Soup, I was wondering why hubby want opt for this. ?? :P Simple miso soup with Japanese taufu and some vege. Taste more like ajinomoto soup.


Tofu...deep fried tofu, but very smooth inside.


Taiwanese Mantis Prawn. It looks so so only, but it's a great finger food.


Tempura Shrimp & Vege. Hubby will not miss to opt for tempura. His favorite dish.

Unlimited order for the first hour. If you still not full, you can go for sushi and fruits.
Buffet dinner for 2 cost at RM110.40, inclusive of 10% service charge and 5% government tax. A little too expensive huh?

Sweet & Sour Pork Chop

Today is another "no rice" Sunday for us. Too bored of having dishes with brown rice. I want to cook something new but not so tedious. Finally, I made up my mind to cook Western food, the sweet & sour pork chop. I know, the cooking process will mess up my kitchen. What to do? Let it be!

I have no idea which type of pork meat I should use, so I just informed the butcher to cut me some soft lean meat for my pork chop dish. Then, my experiment started...

Sweet & Sour Pork Chop
Serves 2

Ingredients:

380gm of pork chop cutlets

1 small yellow onion, diced horizontally

1/2 yellow capsicum, diced

Canola oil to cook

Seasoning for pork chop cutlets

Sprinkling of salt and pepper

Sauce ingredients
4 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp chili sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar

1/3 cup of water

Method

1. Marinate pork chop with seasoning for 1 hour.

Tips: Lightly chop the pork cutlets across the top & bottom surfaces with the back of knife.

2. In a non stick pan, fry the marinated pork chop until golden. Drain oil and set aside.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil and saute onion until fragrant. Pour in the sauce ingredients. Bring to boil.

4. Return pork chop pieces to the pan and Add capsicum. Cook for 1–2 minutes.

5. Serve the pork chop with stir-fried cauliflower & broccoli and peach slices (from can).

Mom's Chili Flower Crabs

I was so happy last afternoon when I had my lunch at my parents place. Yuhoo!!! I spotted a mouth-watering dish! Mom cooked my favourite flower crabs. Yummy Yummy!

Now a days, flower crab is no longer cheap. 1kg of flower crab cost for RM19. Dad bought 4 big crabs from our nearby wet market for RM22. We normally buy our raw seafood directly from fishermen. But sometimes, you just can't find any supply of flower crab at all the stalls due to lack of harvest. But, if they have a good catch, they will offer better price.

Crab meat is an excellent source of high quality protein, vitamins, and minerals that are needed for good nutrition. Crab meat is an good source of phosphorus, zinc, copper, calcium, and iron and is very low in fat, especially saturated fat. However, it is also somewhat high in cholesterol which can also raise your blood cholesterol level. Ah.....forget about it la, I just enjoy it once in a blue moon, shouldn't have much issue.

When hubby studied in Perth, Australia, he stayed with his brother and sister in law. They used to have outings during the weekends. One of the activities was catching blue crabs (here we called flower crabs). However, only adult crabs were allowed to catch. If not, will be summoned by the rangers ha...I shall experience the crab catching when we visit there in future. :)

Compared to mud crab, flower crab has softer shell. It's easier to consume as the shell comes off easily. I don't know how to cook it, I just know how to eat, haha...My mom stir fried the crabs with ginger strips, lots of chopped garlic, chili paste, and seasoned with light soy sauce and sugar. It tasted so yummy. The flesh is fresh and sweet. Hmm...just that this time dad got all male crabs, so no roe lor.... If not, the dish will be more tastier. I don't mind to spend my time to slowly enjoy the crabs. Fingers licking good! :D

Chicken Stew With Carrot & Potato

Thanks to Ming & Ling for sharing their recipe with me. I requested for the recipe from Ling, and she passed the task to Ming to supply me the recipe. ",)

The main reason I asked for the recipe is that I've been wanting to cook something similar to this, but was not really sure the method. So for the first time, I followed the recipe but with the ingredients cut down for just 2 of us. The method is simple, and most importantly it won't mess up the kitchen. We love the taste of this dish, and I found that it is a suitable dish for toddlers.

Chicken Stew With Carrot & Potato
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 boneless whole chicken leg, cut into cubes

1 potato, cut into cubes
1 small carrot, cut into cubes
1 small onion, sliced

Seasoning:

2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
dash of sesame oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
Water
Corn starch

Instructions:

1. Marinate chicken cubes with sesame oil and light sauce and leave aside.

2. Boil carrot and potato until soft and leave aside.

3. Fried onion until slightly brown.

4. Stir in chicken and fry until half cooked.

5. Stir in potato and carrot and stir fry for 3 minutes.

6. Add in oyster sauce and dark soy sauce.

7. Add in water enough to fill dish.

8. Add in corn starch to thicken.

9. Add in salt to taste. (I skip this as I found with the soy sauce and oyster sauce, it was just nice)

10. Serve hot.

Fish Porridge and Noodle @ Restoran Her Pian

Last Saturday after our morning walk session, we went out for breakfast with FIL. Of course, he is very familiar on where to go for cheap and delicious local food. ;) This time he brought us to River Side for fish porridge.

There's only one stall operating in the morning. Fish porridge (RM4.50), fish vermicelli soup (RM4.50), pork porridge (RM3.50), and koay teow th'ng (RM2.50) are available.

FIL ordered his fried fish fillet porridge. Hmm...old folks really love porridge. :) But hubby and I quickly responded "no" when he invited us to order porridge. We prefer smooth and soft porridge, rather than "rice soaked in soup".


Hubby ordered fresh fish fillet bee hoon soup. I tried the fish fillet. It's very fresh. No fishy smell at all.

For me, I ordered bee hoon soup with fried fish fillet. The serving consisted very generous portion of fish fillets, chinese cabbage and celery. The soup base is not overly sweetened by Ajinomoto. I would say it is a good choice for breakfast.

Restaurant Her Pian (River Side) is located near the traffic light turning into Patani Jaya.

Japanese Tofu With Enokitake

Enokitake, the fungi in a sproutlike appearance with small caps and thin, long, stems. I personally like its crunchy mouthfeel. It is excellent when served raw in soups and salads. Also, cooked Enokitake is an excellent source of niacin ( vitamin B3, a water-soluble vitamin which prevents the deficiency disease pellagra) and riboflavin ( vitamin B2, an easily absorbed micronutrient with a key role in maintaining health in humans and animals).

I found that Enokitake goes well with Japanese tofu. Another fact that enlightens me is that the cooking process is very simple. Total preparation and cooking time just less than 20 minutes. :)

Japanese Tofu With Enokitake

Ingredients:
1 tube of Japanese tofu, cut into 1.5cm thickness
A packet of Enokitake, cut off the root, washed and drained
2 crab meat sticks, cut into strips
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp of corn flour mixed with 2 tbsp of water
Some water
Canola oil

Seasoning:
1.5 tbsp of oyster sauce

Instructions:
1. Heat some oil in a pan. Pan-fry the tofu slices till golden yellow. Arrange the tofu on a plate.
2. With the balance oil in the pan, stir fry the garlic till fragrant. Add in the Enokitake and stir fry for a while.
3. Add some water and oyster sauce. Leave it simmer for 30 seconds before add in the crab stick.
4. Pour in corn starch and mix well. Off the fire.
5. Pour the gravy over the tofu slices.

Note: Served hot to prevent the fishy smell when it’s cooled.

Dim Sum @ Yoke Fook Moon

On the 2nd day of Raya, we went down to Ikea to shop for some items. We dropped by Ipoh for dim sum breakfast. Initially we planned to try Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum. However, luck was not on our side. It was closed that day. So, we just dined in the other shop opposite to Ming Court, the Yoke Fook Moon. I heard this restaurant is also one of the famous in Ipoh.

Although it was still early at 7.30am, but the restaurant was already crowded. :( We were not the early birds. Almost all the tables were fully occupied. We waited for few minutes before we were seated.


Har Kao 虾饺. It looks so beautiful in its snow white crystal clear skin. This one tastes excellent.


Their Har Mai 虾卖 taste good too.

Ordering the Char Siew Pao 叉烧包 was a mistake. I just took a small bite and that's it! Any Char Siew Pao that I've tried in Penang hawker stalls are mostly better than this.

I can't remember what this is called. This was highly recommended by the waitress. Hmm...does it look like bird nest? LOL. It's the prawn rolled up in rice vermicelli and deep-fried till golden brown.

White radish cake 白萝卜糕 . This radish cake is fragrant and delicious, though it's a bit oily.

Prawns in poh piah skin. Of course it is crispy.

As you can see, almost all the dim sum that we ordered is porkless except the Char Siew Pao. Hmm...The fact is we don't like pork dim sum. Overall the dim sum at Yoke Fook Moon is okay, though we didn't got a chance to compare with Ming Court's. Hmmm...maybe we'll try our luck next time we travel down south.

Address: No. 67-69, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh.

Tel: 05-2416589