Banana leaf Asian cafe & Bar @ Coco Park ShenZhen

Sometimes when you travel overseas you'd wish for some familiar cuisine like those back home in Malaysia. Malaysian food is not so popular in China but sometimes if you are lucky, you'll able to find one in the shopping complexes.
I happened to go shopping at the Coco Park in ShenZhen when I found an asian food chain cafe serving some familiar food that you'd find back in Malaysia. The shop is called Banana Leaf Asian Cafe & Bar.....yup it is also a bar as they serve liquor at night.



I ordered curry chicken rice while my colleague who went there with me ordered green curry instead.

Curry chicken with lots of coconut milk


green curry

What do you think about the texture? nice?

Sweet Corn 4 snack

These days you can get a pair of nice sweet corns in super/hypermarkets like Tesco, Sunshine, Jusco in Penang. Sometimes when we bought extra packs, my dear will steam them for snacks. It is really simple, all you have to do is to sprinkle a little bit of salt and sugar, then steam them for 10 minutes. Viola! Nice and juicy sweet corns ready to be served.

Fried Vermicelli

Ingredients:

180g vermicelli (soaked in water)

16 medium prawns, shelled

100g left over roasted pork, cut into small pieces

150g chinese mustard, cut into bite size

2 tbsp chopped garlic

3 eggs

5 tbsp of vegetable oil

Enough water

Seasoning:

1 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp chili paste

Method:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok, add the eggs and scramble the eggs until cooked. Dish out and set aside.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in the wok and saute garlic until light brown. Add the prawns and roasted pork. Stir fry until fragrant.

3. Add seasoning. Stir fry for half a minute.

4. Pour in water and bring to a boiling. Stir in vermicelli and vegetables.

5. Add scrambled egg and stir fry well.

6. Dish out to serve.

Salad Pasta

Salad pasta is one of my dear's favorite. He can finish a huge serving for his lunch or dinner. While for me, I'll choose to eat the veggies and fruits rather than eating lots of spiral pasta.

Let's see what ingredients I prepared for the salad pasta. Hmm...There were broccoli, baby cherry tomatoes, asparagus, capsicum, red apple, Swiss brown mushrooms, and spiral pasta. For the topping, I used olive oil and thousand island sauce. See, all are considered as good sources of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, calcium, folic acid, and fatty acids. It's a healthy meal indeed. ;P

Lunch @ China Fast Food chain

Unlike Malaysia, China has many different types of fast food stores, ranging from chinese dishes to western food. I'm not too adventurous when it comes to food when I travel to China because you'd never know what they serve and the hygiene is questionable. However, if you stick to those establish shops, you'd be fine.



While I was in ShenZhen, I happened to go to a chinese fast food store serving both oriental and western food. I ordered a whole baked chic with corn, and my colleague ordered chicken rice.
One thing nice about the Chinese is that they really know how to innovate on the way they take their food. For my whole chicken, they gave me a pair of disposable transparent glove so that I don't have to wash my hand and get my hands dirty for meddling with the chic. The baked chicken taste good and the size is just nice for my lunch.

The chicken rice, on the other hand, is just average according to my colleague. Guess I made a better choice :P

Vegetarian Pastries From Adventist Bakery

Adventist Bakery is situated in the Adventist Hospital, Pulau Tikus. It sells all types of breads, cakes and egg tarts. All are vegetarian pastries. You can find some organic food from there as well, like oats, Psyllium husk, soy milk, beans, sugar, salt, olive oil, etc. We used to visit their outlet in Sunshine Square, but it has been shutdown for quite some time. Now, they have another branch in Sunshine Farlim, which I have not been there before.

My dear and I love to eat their cheese cake and Tiramisu. It just cost RM3.80 per piece, which is quite reasonable.

Cappuccino cheese cake


Tiramisu

We tried their banana nutty cake and hazzelnut cake also, which cost for RM4.80 each. It's my dear's favorite, but it's too sweet to my liking. I will choose to have their sardin buns and sambal prawn buns instead.

The egg tarts, 4 in 1 pack cost for RM4.80. It is made of castard, eggs, milk and sugar.


These are the wholemeal potato buns. It contains lots of sesame seeds, which is good for health.

Pak Loh Chiu Chow Express @ HK Airport

During my trip back from ShenZhen, I was on transit at HK airport and trying to find something for lunch. I used to settle my lunch at the airport's Burger King - one of my favorite :P but this time, I want to try out some chinese food there. So I stopped by Pak Loh Chiu Chow Express and ordered fish ball kuay teow soup.

It turned out the kuay teow soup was so so, need to add soya sauce to increase the taste. And the fish ball, although is big, is also average. I think the fish ball sold at Penang's Sungai Ara market taste better than this. Overall I give it 5 out of 10.

A Dissatisfied Dinner @ Five Star Restaurant

Last year December, my dear and I visited to this restaurant called "Five Stars Restaurant". It's located at Batu Lanchang, next to the Ong Too Pain Clinic. I heard about this restaurant from an ex-colleague quite some time ago. What I remembered he told me was although the restaurant is named as "Five Star Restaurant", however, the price is reasonable, and the food is delicious. That's why I suggested to my dear to give it a try.

The first word from both of us when we walked out from there was "yaaaakkkkkkk!!!". We were totally dissatisfied with the food served. The food servings were really small. We found the price was over-charged based on the serving size. Take a look at the photos below, and I'm sure you'll nod your head.


Asparagus stir fried in sambal belacan cost for RM8. Quantity so less only and the belacan taste is not nice. The other day I bought a big bunch of fresh asparagus from Jusco, 500gms just cost for RM5 something. I tried to cook the same dish using 250gms of asparagus and it tasted much more better. With the huge serving, and the delicious taste, I would say I can cook better than the chef in this Five Star Restaurant. ^^


This dish is called Indonesian prawns. We were so surprise when we saw they served this dish on a plate coz all the previous curry that we took in other restaurants were served in a big bowl with lots of appetizing curry broth. These 5 prawns in so little broth cost for RM15. Pricey, isn't it?


Hot plate Japanese tofu, cost for RM6. I guess they just used up half tube of the Japanese tofu, which you can get at less than RM1 per tube. Furthermore, there's no egg included, and of course no fragrant smell lar...


The belacan fried chicken cost for RM7. I just manage to finish 1 small piece of it. It's hard and not tasty at all.

Dare you visit the restaurant?

Their add:
19-C, Ground Floor, Taman Sri Damai,
Lebuh Raya Batu Lanchang,
11600 Penang.

Tel: 04-6568605

Lotus Root Soup

Lotus root is very low in saturated fat and cholesterol. It is also a good source of dietary fiber, thiamin, vitamin B6, phosphorus, potassium, copper and manganese, and a very good source of vitamin C. It is an ideal food for maintaining optimum health.

Lotus root soup is one of my favourite soup. I'm a lazy working lady that usually boil soup in the slow cooker. However, my personal opinion is this soup tastes better if cooks in pot or double boiler.

Lotus Root Soup


Ingredients:
1. 300g lotus roots
2. 200g pork ribs
3. 10 red dates (wash and drain)
4. 800ml of water
5. light soy sauce to taste.

Method:
1. Wash and clean mud from lotus root. Remove the skin and joints from lotus roots. Cut it into 0.5 cm thickness.
2. Wash the pork ribs to remove any blood and trim off excess fat.
3. Bring the water to boil in a pot. Add pork ribs into the boiling water and boil for half an hour. Remove scum from the surface of soup.
4. Add in the lotus root slices and red dates. Simmer the soup for another 2 hours.
5. Add seasoning and serve hot.

Winter Melon Soup

Winter melon soup is believed good for helping to relieve water retention during the advanced stages of pregnancy.

Winter Melon Soup



Ingredients:

1. About 200gms of winter melon, skinned and cut into cubes.
2. 12 red dates.
3. 200gms of pork ribs.
4. 800ml of water.
5. Salt and pepper to taste.

Methods:

1. Bring 800ml of water to boil in a pot and pour it into the slow cooker.
2. Add in pork ribs, winter melon and red dates.
3. Let it simmer under automatic mode for at least 5 to 6 hours.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Dim Sum @ Bali Hai

My family had breakfast at Bali Hai the other day when my eldest brother came back from Australia to see my mum. The place is located at Gurney Drive, just 150m away from Gurney Plaza, facing seaside. Bali Hai serve seafood during the night, but in the morning, they serve Dim Sum at very reasonable prices. The best thing is they even have free WiFi for all! The atmosphere is quite nice compared to many places, good for taking breakfast with your friends and family. I didn't come here before for dinner, so I can't comment much on that, but with the side aquariums with lots of seafood, i guess it's not bad too.


You can't miss the Bai Hai signboard


Steamed Dim Sum


Fried and baked Dim sum


Horse shoe crab


Geoduck -never tried that before, dunno how it taste like


Do they really serve these monsters for dinner?

Miso Soup

Miso soup is the traditional Japanese soup serves in almost all the Japanese restaurants. In fact, some are too salty. I searched through the net for the recipes, and manage to tried it out with ingredients based on my personal preference. It is easy to prepare. Once you have all the ingredients ready, it will just take for less than 15 minutes to cook.

Miso Soup

Ingredients:

Miso soup ingredients

1. 800 ml of water

2. Japanese tofu 1 tube, cut into small cubes

3. 8g of dashi stock. Remark: I don't have it, so I use half cube of Maggie chicken stock.

4. 2 tbsp of Miso paste.

5. Some enokitake (golden needle mushroom).

6. Chopped spring onions.

Methods:

1. Boil 800ml of water with chicken stock.

2. Add in tofu and enokitake, bring to a rapid boil. Reduce to medium heat and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Lower heat, place strainer on the surface of boiling soup, add in Miso paste, press down and stir to dissolve Miso paste into soup.

4. Off the fire as soon as it reaches boiling point. Sprinkle some chopped spring onions just before serving.

Miso Soup