Tom Yam with Vermicelli

I woke up from a satisfying nap this evening, and was craving for Tom Yam. :) So tham chiak, hehe... However I feel like to cook my own instead of dining out, cuz I have lots of ingredients in the fridge. Too bad, I'm short of the most important ingredient, the tom yam paste. So, I just order my hubby to buy me a bottle from the nearby mini market. Fair right? Husband and wife got to work together mah... Agree or not?

Tom Yam with Maggie mee would be tastier, but I've restricted intake of instant noodle, so got to cook Tom Yam with vermicelli. After getting the dried vermicelli cooked and served in bowls, I continued with the Tom Yam soup base.

Ingredients for the soup base:

1. 100gms of oyster mushrooms.

2. 4 baby corns.

3. Half of tomato, slice into 4 pcs.

4. 8 medium size prawns.

5. 5 big fishballs, cut into half.

6. 5 pcs of kaffir lime leaves.

7. lemon grass, smashed the white part.

8. half onion, dice.

9. 2 & a half tbsp of Tom Yam paste.

10. Light soy sauce to taste.

For garnishing:

Mint leaves

Method:

1. Bring enough water to boil in a pot.

2. Add lemon grass, onion, kaffir lime leaves and Tom Yam paste and let it simmer for a while.

3. Pour in all the other ingredients and bring it to boil.

4. Add light soy sauce to taste.

5. Pour the soup over the vermicelli in the bowl and serve hot.

This is another simple meal to prepare and it will not mess up the kitchen. :)

The Best Wantan Mee @ Tian Tian Liang

Last Saturday morning after our morning walk session, hubby brought me to this coffee shop called Tian Tian Liang. It's located at the junction between the main road of Jalan Kampung Baru and Jalan Petani Jaya.

FIL introduced the wantan mee to us. It's the most famous wantan mee in Sungai Petani.

When we placed our order, I still have no idea what's so special about the wantan mee here. I'm quite impressed with their method of taking down customer's order. The method is similar to Nando's. They jotted down our order, and gave us a big number plate. We got the no 3! I thought it'll be our turn soon, but I was totally wrong. :(

After waiting for 20 minutes for our wantan mee, our stomachs were growling non-stop. To solve the problem, hubby order 2 yau char kuai for us. It was a wise decision, as this was the most superb yau char kuai that we've tried so far. The dough is freshly made and deep fried on the spot. It's hot and super crunchy. Dip it in coffee.......Oh, you'll feel like you are in the heaven. Some more it's so cheap!

After waiting nearly 35 minutes, finally our wan tan mee turned up. Here it is!

Appearance wise, there's nothing to shout about. It's like the ordinary wantan mee that you can find almost every where. But.......after you take a bite of the noodle, you'll realise the 30 minutes of waiting worth it. It's the most delicious wantan noodle that I've tried so far. It's not only just perfectly cooked and springy, it is also thinner than other wantan noodle. It was observed to be curlier than other noodle too......Oh, now I know, it's the home made noodle from the tauke. No wonder it's so special. Besides, you can find those small pieces of pork lard too. Needless to say, it enhances the taste. Small serving cost for RM2.50 and large for RM3.30. It's compatible to Penang's price.

Mee Suah In Herba Soup

Once in a while I’ll cook Sip Chuan soup with chicken drumsticks by using slow cooker.

Ingredient for Sip Chuan soup includes Ligusticum Wallichi, Angelica Sinensis, Paconia Lactielora, Rehmannia Glutinosa, Coponosis Tangshen, Poria Cocos, Atractylodes Macrocephala, Glycyrrhiza Uralensis, Ziziphin Jujuba, Astragali, Cartex Cianamani.

It helps to activate blood circulation and revitalize energy. The soup can be taken on its own, with rice or even with mee suah.

Here’s is how I prepare the dish:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook mee suah in the boiling water. Keep in mind that mee suah cooked very quickly. Within 30 to 40 seconds or even less, it will be ready. Drain the water and serve the mee suah in a bowl.

2. Pour the Sip Chuan soup in the bowl together with the drumstick. Add a tbsp of sesame oil and stir well.

Seafood Char Koay Kak @ Batu Lanchang Market

Located inside the Batu Lanchang Market foodcourt, there's a seafood char koay kak stall near the entrance that is closest to wet market building. This stall has been operating for the past 20 years by a couple. You can see a lot of certificates hanging at their stall. All of them belongs to this uncle. They were the recognition given to uncle's food, his fried koay kak.

When I was still a little kid, my parents used to bring me along during their weekly marketing trip to this market. Everytime without fail, we dropped by this foodcourt for our afternoon tea before the marketing task began. :) My mum used to bring along our own ingredients like squids and prawns. Uncle will add all these seafood when he fried our koay kak without extra charge. Of course you can request uncle to add other seafood based on the varieties that he has.

Hubby had not taste this koay kak before, so I brought him there for a try. He ordered a regular koay kak that cost for RM3.20. Not cheap, anyway.

Besides the normal ingredients like bean sprout, chai po and egg, you'll find 2 prawns, crab meat stick and some fish ball slices. If you are wondering why you can't find the ingredients, hehe....they are all hidden beneath the koay kak. So don't get disappointed.

Well, the taste is still above average. It's fragrant and full of "wok hei". However, the serving is quite small. It may not able to fill your stomach if you just have one plate. :P

Angle Hair Spaghetti

Honestly speaking, I don't really know what is the right way of cooking angle hair spaghetti. Once, I tried it out with meatball spaghetti Bolognese, but it didn't turn out as good as the normal spaghetti. It's too thin. The balance was kept in the kitchen cabinet until one day, I thought of cooking something simple for our dinner.

This is how it looks like - my angle hair spaghetti cooked in Chinese way. Not bad, isn't it? You just need 2 minutes to cook the angel hair spaghetti, and another 2 minutes to cook the soup base. I use half chicken cube to boil the soup, then add some ingredients like fish balls, prawns, crab meat stick, choy sam, and sprinkle some garlic oil. I would say the angle hair's texture fits for this dish. Furthermore, it's good choice compared to some other instant noodle. It does not contain artificial colorings, flavorings or preservatives. It's 100% Durum wheat.

Another method of preparing a simple meal will be the similar way of cooking dried wantan mee. As above, cook the spaghetti for 2 minutes. At the same time, prepare the sauce on a plate. Mix the sauce with dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, dash of pepper, garlic oil, and sesame oil. Pour the spaghetti on the plate together with some boiling water. Stir it well. Next is to cook some ingredients like prawns and vegie in boiling water, then mix well with the spaghetti in the plate. Angle hair is easier to cook compared to wantan mee. Even you overcook it, the noodle will still springy. But of course it is much more expensive compared to wantan noodle.

This type of simple dish really suits my requirement, cuz the whole process takes less than half hour to prepare. Even I come back late from home, I still able to prepare a home cooked meal for hubby and myself. Sounds great?

Claypot Bak Kut Teh @ Restaurant Good Luck

One Sunday afternoon, my dear brought me to Restaurant Good luck. It's famous for claypot bak kut teh. It's located at Patani Jaya, Sungai Petani, which is just opposite to Restaurant Loke Thiem Hakka . According to hubby, lots of people including Japanese guys love to dine in during lunch time.

We ordered a pot of bak kut teh with a plate of yau char kuai for 2 of us. I'm so disappointed after I sipped a spoon of the soup base. It's not boiling hot. Initially I put my high expectation on our food when I saw the lady preparing the dish by charcoal. But....who knows yea... Too bad. My comment is: Most of the hawker stalls in Penang serve better bak kut teh compared to theirs. Somemore, this small pot of bak kut teh with very basic ingredients cost us for RM22.

Hubby suspected the business has been taken over by somebody else, cuz the quality of the bak kut teh deteriorated so much. I dare not recommend it to anyone who asks me where to get a famous bak kut teh in Sungai Petani. I'm afraid later get scolded. !@#$%^&*?><~(

Japin Restaurant @ Queensbay Mall

One Friday evening, we dropped by Queensbay Mall after work. We were wondering what to eat. Finally we gave Japin a try when we passed by. It's located at the 2F-147 unit in the North zone. My colleague recommend this restaurant to me when I asked her where she used to dine in. She recommended one of us order the set meal, and the other one to order the ramen. So, I just follow her recommendation right away. :P

My dear ordered the Butayaki set. It's the BBQ pork set that served with white rice, miso soup, and side dishes like mashed potato and salad in thousand island sauce. A small bown of desert will be served after you finished the set meal. The pork slices are really fragrant. I stole a few from hubby :P . It's not only tender, but also flavorsome. It's been BBQ to perfection. Not only tempting but also appetizing. He ordered the right thing. Good choice!

As for me, I ordered the Kimuchi Ramen. Like usual, a very big bowl was served. However, can't really find much of ingredients. Besides Kimuchi, there's few slices of pork, and also a tempura prawn. I was not able to finish the big bowl. So, just left it for hubby. I know there are some other places to find a better Kimuchi Ramen.

Revisited this place in June 2010, and we found that the Butayaki served was too salty.

Fragrant Rice Set

Nasi lemak is very delicious, but it’s not a healthy food. As a nasi lemak fans, I have been thinking for a while to cook my own fragrant rice set to replace my favourite nasi lemak. Tada….here it is, quite successful, right?

With all the nasi lemak ingredients like asam prawns, deep fried crispy anchovies, baked ground nuts, fresh cucumber slices, hard boiled eggs (omega-3), and most importantly the sambal, my fragrant rice taste marvelous. Hehe

Fragrant rice (for 4 persons):

Ingredients:

2 and a half cup of rice

1 teaspoon of salt

6 pandan leaves, tie into 3 knots with 2 pandan leaves each

4 thin slices of ginger

Enough water

Sambal paste consists of onions, belacan, fresh red chilies, dried chilies, garlics, lemon grass - blended and saute with sliced onions and added with tamarind juice, a pitch of salt & sugar, and Maggie anchovy stock granules.

Chicken Curry Kapitan

Last Sunday, I was sort of craving for curry, and I was looking forward to have curry with strong smell of kaffir lime leave. Hmm...sounds weird? Hence, I got an idea to cook chicken curry Kapitan for the very first time. :) Without wasting time, hubby and I just headed to the wet market to start our marketing.

Here's the ingredients that I prepared:

1. Half chicken, chopped into small pieces, and remove skin and fat.

2. RM1 fresh Kapitan curry paste.

3. RM1 fresh coconut milk.

4. 3 lemon grass, smashed the white part.

5. half tbsp of belacan.

6. 10 pcs of kaffir lime leaves.

7. 1pc lime, squeeze the juice.

8. Light soy sauce to taste.

Method:

1. Heat up some Canola oil in a wok and stir fry the curry paste, belacan, lemon grass and kaffir lime leave till you smell the aroma.

2. Add in chicken and stirring till the chicken pcs are almost cook.

3. Pour in the coconut milk and some water. Let it simmer for another 15 minutes under medium heat.

4. Add the lime juice and light soy sauce to taste. Serve hot with white/ brown rice.

I'm glad that my recipe turned out fine. :P Really enjoyed this home cooked Kapitan chicken curry. It satisfied my taste bud and my stomach. Hehe...

Teow Chew Meng Restaurant @ Sunway Tunas

This is not the first time we dine at Teow Chew Meng Restaurant but the last time we went is about a year ago. So, one saturday evening, my hubby took me and my parents there for dinner at Sunway Tunas Teow Chew Meng.

Hubby ordered 2 bowls of the usual Mee Sua Tow, which is the signature dish of the restaurant...still maintain the same standard. Dad and hubby love it. With vinegar added, it taste so good!

My mom and I wanted to try something different, so we ordered Tom Yam Seafood. It was sour and hot...just as I like it! :) I'm quite satisfied with my order, cuz lots of ingredients can be found in my bowl. A big prawn, 2 pcs of fish fillet, fish balls, crab meat stick, shiitake mushroom, and lots of squid. What can I say? Shyiok!!

Hubby ordered Honey Lemonade... While the rest of us just had our hot Chrysanthemum tea.

Apart from the main dishes, we also ordered Apple Salad with soft bean curd. It wasn't new to me as we order this dish almost every visit. The bean curd must be their home made. It's so soft and fragrant, and was perfectly deep fried till the outside layer is crispy.

We also ordered 3 taste oyster. It is something new to us. However, it's not up to my expectation. It's too sour to my liking. The oyster just taste average and the serving is pretty small.

The oyster dish comes with some toast for you to enjoy the gravy.

Dine in Teow Chew Meng Restaurant is never cheap. The food cost us RM80++.

Update: 
Revisited this place in July 2010. Noticed that the food serving size reduced a lot, but the charges remain the same.
Revisited on 15th Oct 2010. The food quality is deteriorated tremendously. The mee suah tow was  the mee suah "tiao" and the portion of bee hoon in my seafood bee hoon soup was a terrible huge serving. Almost all the soup was absorbed by the bee hoon. I saw few foreign workers working in the kitchen. Was one of them the cook?

Chicken Rice Cooked In Rice Cooker

After reading Allie's clay pot chicken rice, I got an idea to cook a simple chicken rice using the electric rice cooker. Without wasting my time, I urged hubby to drive me to Jusco at Queesbay Mall to buy some ingredients. What I have at home is just the organic ecoBrown's rice, chicken breast, and dried mushroom. Still lacked of white rice and lup cheong.

By the time I gathered all the ingredients, it's already 6.30pm. I told myself, I would not have time to marinate the chicken, so I got to do something else in order to make the chicken tasty.

Here's what I did. I stir fried chopped garlic in a preheat non-stick pan, and pour in chicken breast, mushroom and lup cheong to mix well. Then I added some oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and light soy sauce to the mixture and continue to stir fry for a while. After that, pour in the washed rice to stir fry together, and pour in sufficient water. Bring it to a boil. Finally just pour everything into rice cooker.

Hmm...in fact, this is not a recipe post. I didn't really measure the amount of each ingredients and seasoning. Everything was just based on my experience. Well, ok, don't misunderstood. I'm not an aunty yet. My experiences only accumulated since I started cooking 3 years ago. It's my passion to discover home cooked recipe. :) Also, I inherit my mom's culinary skills.

Anyway, I like the result. Haha...

ABC Soup

How to make ABC soup? Just follow the steps below to get a big bowl of delicious ABC soup.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized carrots, peeled and cubed

1 medium sized potato, peeled and cubed

1 medium sized tomato, washed and sliced

1 onion, quartered

200g of pork ribs

800ml of watersalt & pepper to taste

Methods:

1. Bring water to boil in a pot. Then pour it to the slow cooker.

2. Put in pork ribs, carrot, potato, tomato and onion. Cook it under automatic mode.

3. Let it simmer for 4 to 5 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Prawn Noodle

From the previous discovery on Meaty Fragrance Noodle, here's another try out using organic whole wheat noodle. I bought the prawns freshly from a fisherman. 12 medium size prawns just cost me for RM2.50. Damn cheap! Well, you can read from here on the whole story.

Prawn Noodle
serves 2

Ingredients:

2 pcs of organic noodle

12 medium size prawns

2 tomatoes, sliced and blended with 500ml of water into tomato puree

8 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 tbsp of Canola oil

Seasoning:

1 and a half tbsp of chili paste

4 tbsp of tomato sauce

light soy sauce and sugar to taste.

Garnishing:

5 leaves of lettuce, thinly sliced

2 Omega 3 eggs, hard boiled and sliced

Method:

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

2. Add oil to the heated wok and stir fry the chopped garlic till fragrant. Pour in the prawns and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add some light soy sauce and tomato sauce continue to stir fry for another 1 minute.

3. Add the chilli paste and continue to stir fry for a while.

4. Pour in the tomato puree. Let it simmer for roughly 5 minutes. Add sugar and light soy sauce to taste.

5. Off the fire, and pour the sauce over the cooked noodle. Garnish with lettuce and hardboiled egg.

What do you think?

Update: This post has been submitted to Presto Pasta Nights#91 organised by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast and hosted by Daphne from More Than Words .