Raw Papaya Soup

There are 2 papaya trees growing at my parents in law’s back yard. It is harvesting time right now. I'm thinking of a recipe for the raw papayas..... use it for soup boiling seems to be a good idea. The nutritional highlight of papaya is the enzyme called papain. Papain is an excellent aid for digestive system.

Boiling the raw papaya soup is similar like boiling winter melon soup. The raw papaya which is originally hard will turn soft like cooked winter melon, but it is much sweeter than the winter melon.

Anyone have other papaya recipe to share?

Ingredient:

Half of medium size papaya, skinned, seeded and cut into bite size
2 chicken bone
2 slices of ginger
1.5 liter of water

Seasoning:

1 flat tbsp of white pepper, smashed
Sea salt to taste

Method:

1. Bring the water to a boil. Add pepper, ginger, chicken bone and leave it simmering under low heat for about an hour.

2. Add the papaya cubes and simmering under low heat for the last 30 minutes. Add salt to taste.

3. Skim off the scum from the surface and serve hot.

Sakae Teppanyaki @ Auto-City

Sakae Teppanyaki
Address: 1815-B, Jalan Perusahaan, AutoCity, North-South Highway Juru Interchange, Prai, 13600 Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 04-6080268
Halal

A day after attending Criz's DIM SUM PARTY & CBA Anniversary Celebration, hubby and I went to Sakae Teppanyaki @ Autocity for our dinner. We were on the way back to Penang and want to have something different that night. So, we decided to drop by AutoCity to hunt for something that we never try before.

Before we could enjoy our meal, we got to watch "live performaces" by the chef....


The chef entertaining the guests with some utensils throwing, eggs juggling performances. Pretty impressive!

Yaki Soba at RM10.80

I was having fun watching the chef frying my order of yaki soba. I learned the cooking steps too, but definitely not his “kung fu” style of eggs juggling. Phew...like watching circus. Ok, back to the noodle, it tastes pretty good. The ingredients included chicken fillet, shiitake mushroom, capsicum, carrot strips, onion and egg. The chef threw in generous amount of minced garlic for the stir-frying.

Unagi and Tempura Set at RM24.90

Hubby Ordered Unagi and Tempura Set. He's such a tempura fan that you can always expect him to order this dish whenever we dine in at Japanese restaurant. However, I must admit that the tempura served at Sakae Teppanyaki looks really nice. Hubby commented the unagi and tempura set is not bad.

The chawan mushi and miso soup for hubby's set dinner. The chawan mushi is really good! Really smooth and yummy!

Overall, the dinner cost us RM50.05. Another satisfying dinner!

White House White Coffee Restaurant @ Tesco Extra Seberang Jaya

Whiter House Coffee
Address: Lot G5 & G6 Tesco Extra, Seberang Jaya, Malaysia.
No pork served

It was our first time to Seberang Jaya's Tesco Extra. We went there just to dine in at White House Coffee, as I heard the food is quite okay.

If you observe the cover page of the menu, you'll be led to think that this restaurant serves Nyonya cuisine, as they printed "Little Nyonya Cuisine" with some elaborations. However, after browsing through the menu I don't find the food served here is typical Nyonya cuisine. It's more like franchise kopitiam style. They serve a combination of Asian and Western food.

We opt for their value meal coupons and ordered 2 set meals and a onion ring.

The iced lemon tea that came in the set meal that we ordered. It's rich in lemon flavor and very refreshing.

Onion ring RM 3.80

We had the onion ring for the starters. We were impressed by this simple entree. It looks much more presentable than those served in A&W, don't you think? Taste wise it was quite good with the natural sweetness of the yellow onion.

Set Tom Yam Chicken Rice with Ice Lemon Tea RM8.60

This is what I opted for. I found that it was a good choice. The tom yam chicken was cooked to perfection with pungent aroma from Kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, bird's eye chili and onion. The serving is huge, so I had to share some with hubby. A small bowl of tom yam soup is served as complementary.

Fish and Chips with Ice Lemon Tea at RM12.60

Hubby went for his Western meal, the old style fish and chips. The 2 tiny pieces of fish fillet was too little to fill up his tummy. It just tastes average anyway.

For desserts, they have some cakes and pastries for you to enjoy after your meal. We skipped the dessert to cut down the calories intake. :)

Squid In Dark Soy Sauce

My mom's signature dish of the day - Squid In Dark Soy Sauce. We don't take squid quite often. Once a while mom will pamper us with her tasty squid curry. At times, she'll prepare this non -spicy squid dish for kids at home. Of course, we stole a few bites too. :)

We prefer medium-sized squid to be cooked in this way. The squids are cleaned and marinated with dark soy sauce, light say sauce, sugar and white pepper powder. Then it is fried till cooked and the sauce thickening.

If you don't take vitamins, now it's time to boost your body with precious Vitamin B12 and Riboflavin by feeding yourself some squid.

Curry Chicken With Potatoes

Mom’s home cooked dish of the day – curry chicken. My mom is very good in cooking all types of curry. Her curry typically consist of fish, prawns, squid and chicken. However, no beef and mutton in our home cooked curry :P

When comes to curry chicken, I’m very picky. I don’t like overpowering spice in the curry, and I prefer chicken breast than chicken thigh in my curry. Luckily we know one trusty fresh curry paste seller near our residential area. The fresh curry paste suits our unique taste buds perfectly with right amount of aromatic spice. With chicken meat, potatoes, lemon grass and coconut milk added to the curry paste, a pot of aromatic curry chicken is produced. To me, this is the best curry chicken ever!

The curry chicken is best served with rice, Bengali bread, roti paratha or roti canai. Hmm…marvelous!

Kim Tavern @ Sunway Carnival Mall

Kim Tavern
Address: LG 04, Sunway Carnival Mall, Jalan Todak, 13700 Seberang Jaya, Malaysia.
Tel: 04-3999879
No pork served

After seeing several reviews on Kim Tavern, hubby and I decided to go there for a try. Kim Tavern is located in Sunway Carnival Mall LG floor. As we seldom venture there to do our shopping, we were surprised to find quite a number of food outlets in the mall. We managed to find our way to the Kim Tavern without much difficultly.

Kim Tavern offers both Western and Eastern delicacies, so hubby and I decided to ordered 2 types of main dish- Eastern Tomyam Seafood Fried Noodle and Western BBQ Chicken Chop. As for starters, we ordered Honey Pepper Roast Drum Stick.

Honey Pepper Roast Chicken Drumstick RM6.90

The drumstick is coated with honey and roasted to perfection. It's really a yummy and appetizing dish. Recommended.

Tomyam Seafood Fried Noodle, RM8.50

I opt for Tomyam Seafood Fried Noodle, which consist of several ingredients, including mussels, prawns, squid, sausage, onion, spring onion, cabbage, carrot strips, tomato, corns, egg and garnished with mint leaves. :) I took the trouble memorizing the ingredients so that I can copy and create my own version of seafood noodles :P Overall, it was quite a nice dish. I love it.

BBQ Chicken Chop, RM13.90

Hubby opted for BBQ Chicken Chop. As you can see, the dish is served with fries, corn and some vege salad. Hubby commented the chicken tastes ok, but not really outstanding.

To sum up our dinner, we ordered hot chocolate and strawberry smoothies. Both drinks didn't offer any surprises but enough to quench our thirst.

Hot Chocolate, RM3.50

Strawberry Smoothies, RM5.50

All in all, we spent about RM40 inclusive of service charge.

Sweet, Sour and Spicy Crispy Anchovies

With my parents staying with us, currently hubby and I are pampered with lots of yummilicious home cooked food. This is another of my favorite dish cooked by my mom, the crispy anchovies coated with homemade chili sauce. The sauce is a combination of calamansi juice, chili paste, shallot, garlic, sugar and salt. It can be either served as a side dish or tidbits. It tastes sweet, sour and little bit of spiciness.

The anchovies are deep-fried till golden brown. Then, with some oil in the wok, the sauce is prepared and the anchovies are stirred in. You can add some roasted peanuts to the mixture to enhance the flavor.

So, you get the idea on how to prepare this finger licking good snack?

Sambal Petai

While we took a stroll at the nearby night market, we spotted a stall selling petai (stinky bean). Without hesitation, we bought 2 bundles of it. If there's only hubby and I at home, I'll not take the trouble to cook this dish. However, with my parents with us, mom and dad will take over the sambal petai cooking task. :)

Dad tore the petai off from the pod and remove its white skin. During the process, you'll spot some tiny white worms. We'll not bother about it as it will add protein to our sambal petai dish, hehe...Then mom prepared the spice and ingredients to be pounded with mortar and pestle. It consists of shallots, garlic, red chili, lemon grass, belacan and lots of dried shrimps. To cook the dish, mom sautes the spice and pounded dried shrimps till fragrant and the chili oil separated. Then the petai is added to mix well.

So, with the hardwork of my parents, we got a chance to savor this delicious and appetizing dish.

Orange Cake (Bake In Rice Cooker) 电饭锅做蛋糕

This orange cake is the similar recipe to my earlier lemon cake. With the micro computer rice cooker around, the orange cake is quick and easy to make. Since I was in baking mood last weekend, I baked two orange cakes to share with my family and friends.

I made some minor modification on my earlier recipe and I observe some improvement this round. Besides the prettier appearance, the cake is fluffy, light and moist. With the little effort, you'll get a healthier version of cake with no margarine and butter.

Orange Cake
Yields for 12 pieces

Ingredients:

5 grade C eggs
180gm self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp of baking powder
120gm Castor sugar
50gm sunflower oil
1 orange, finely grated zest
3tbsp orange juice

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and Caster sugar under high speed until fluffy. (I beat it for about 15 minutes).

2. Add the orange zest and orange juice. Gently fold in the sifted flour and baking powder with plastic spatula.

3. Pour in the sunflower oil and mix well with spatula.

4. Using spatula, transfer the batter into inner pot of rice cooker. Give the pot a few good shake to remove the air trapped in the batter.

5. Bake the cake using "quick cook" menu.

6. When it's done, leave it cool. Upside turn the pot to leave the cake bottom-up on a big plate.

Eggs In Tangy Spicy Sauce (Telur Balado)

Eggs In Tangy Spicy Sauce is always my favorite when dining out at Malay stall. This spicy and pungent dish goes well with nasi lemak, nasi kandar or even steamed white rice. As the cheapest source of Protein, these egg dish is delectable!

Although I love this dish, but I'm a bit lazy to make it at home, due to the troublesome deep frying process. However with my mom around, she helps me with the hardest stuff. I just need to pound the shallots, garlic, belacan, and get it cooked! :)

You may replace tamarind juice with tomato puree.

Eggs In Tangy Spicy Sauce

Ingredients:

6 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
400 ml tamarind juice
1 yellow onion, peeled and sliced
2 stalk of lemon grass, smashed
2 tbsp of chili paste
Cooking oil

Pounded:

6 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
5 pieces candle nut
2cmx2cm belacan

Seasoning:

light soy sauce to taste
sugar to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in wok and fry the hard-boiled eggs till light brown. Remove eggs and set aside.

2. In the same wok, saute the sliced onion till fragrant. Stir in the blended sauce and lemon grass to simmering under medium low heat. Stir well until fragrant. Add tamarind juice gradually. Add salt and sugar to taste.

3. Return fried eggs to the sauce and cook till the sauce is thickening.

Ben's Diner Restaurant

Ben's Diner Restaurant
Address: 43-G, Persiaran Mahsuri 1/1, Sunway Tunas, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.
Tel: 04-6452790
Business Hour: 11:30am - 2:15pm, 6:00pm - 9:15pm
Closed on Saturday
Non-Halal

Named after his own name, the little restaurant has a chic and urban flavor. It only serves Ben's healthy home style Western food. Ben emphasizes in healthy cooking. As the boss for the business, he's also the only chef in the kitchen. He hands on all the stuffs in the kitchen from ingredients preparation, sauce making to cooking.

Over the couple of visits to this place, we never feel bored with the food. We've tried the fish, the pork, and the chicken. So far, the food quality is very consistent. We were satisfied with the food we get with the amount of money we paid. Dining for 2 can cost you just less than RM40. What's more to ask for?

Watercress soup

If you opt for the set, it comes with soup of the day and calamansi drink. The watercress soup is as good as spinach soup. It's not too creamy and filling, just nice to start a meal.

Pork Meatloaf and Sausage

This is my all time favorite. I love Ben's home-made meat loaf with mild spices. I've been ordering this for more than 3 times already. The set comes with a smoked jumbo sausage, mashed potatoes and vegetables with butter fragrant.

Braised Pork

Oven braised pork with fried potato cubes and fresh vegetables. When you take the first bite, you'll think that it tastes like Chinese roasted pork, but then you'll taken aback on how soft and tender the pork is. Topped with Ben's homemade sauce, yummy!

Give it a try when you happen to drop by Sunway Tunas area in Penang. Ben's Diner is just 3 door steps away from Four Seasons Tea Restaurant.

Updates on 13th Dec 2010: Our favorite is still the Meatloaf and Sausage. The quality and serving size maintain since day-1 I tried it back in 2009. We've been patronizing this place on monthly basis, mainly to savor their meatloaf and sausage.

Penang Hokkien Mee (Spicy Prawn Noodle)

Penang Hokkien Mee is one of the unique and popular Penang street food which can be found in practically every hawker centers and street corners. The spicy soup base is rich in wonderful prawn aroma.....simply irresistible.

One day after work, I planned to cook Penang Hokkien mee for our dinner. However, I didn't have enough time to prepare the prawn stock from scratch. But with the help of ready made chili paste, it simplifies the cooking process. Here's of my bowl of Penang Hokkien Mee, topped with hard-boiled egg, prawns, pork ribs and water convolvulus. Does it look good? :)

Refer here for the step by step method on how to prepare Penang Hokkien Mee.

I'm sharing this Malaysian Spicy Prawn Noodles with Presto Pasta Nights #41 founded by Ruth, and the host of the week is Kahakaikitchen.

Chicken Schnitzel

Chicken Schnitzel is a great recipe that I discovered from Flavours magazine (September - October 2009). If I did not make an attempt to cook this dish, I would not know how crispy and tender the chicken breast can be. :)

As per the recipe, the chicken breast will need to be flatten upon cooking. So, I invest on a meat tenderizer, a kitchen tool that looks similar to a hammer. :) I knocked the chicken breast on both sides to flatten it. The whole process was like beating an enemy (the chicken of course), hoo hoo... pity the chicken. This step is the most important, otherwise the cooked chicken breast will be hard and too chewy.

I served the Chicken Schnitzel with hard boiled eggs and blanched sweet snow peas, turning it into a satisfying Western meal. Looks wonderful, isn't it?

Chicken Schnitzel (Recipe by Jean-Michel Fraisse) Serves 2 Ingredients:

1 and a half chicken breast, skinned, cut into 3 pieces and flattened
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
80g flour
80g bread crumbs
cooking oil
50g butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Beat egg with 1 tbsp of oil, salt and pepper. Coat the beaten chicken breast first with flour, then egg mixture and bread crumbs.

3. In a saute pan, heat up oil and butter, and saute chicken over medium heat till golden brown on both sides. Transfer to the oven to finish cooking. This will take about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the meat.

Stewed Pork Ribs With Broccoli

I've been very lazy in cooking these days. Last week, we've been eating out quite frequent. Oh dear, I have very limited recipes to share in this blog. :(

Fortunately, I still have a list saved in my draft. My first choice goes to braised pork ribs , a simple dish through unfussy-combination of cooking in slow cooker. After the long hour of stewing, the ribs turned soft and rich in flavor. Pair it with blanched broccoli and you'll have a yummy homecook dish :)

Stewed Pork Ribs With Broccoli
Serves 4

Ingredients:

400gm of pork ribs
1 small sized broccoli, cut into florets
3 tbsp of cooking oil

Sauce:

2 bulbs of garlic
1/2 yellow onion
2 tbsp soy bean sauce (tau cheong)
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tbsp of chili paste
150ml water

Method:

1. Blend together ingredients for the sauce. Set aside.

2. Heat some oil in a non-stick wok. Stir-fry the pork ribs till half cook.

3. Stir in the sauce and leave it simmering with lid covered. This takes about 10 minutes.

4. Transfer it to cook in slow cooker under high heat for 2 to 3 hours.

4. Blanch the broccoli florets till cook. Serve with the pork ribs.

Tutti Fruitti Restaurant

Tutti Fruitti Restaurant
Address: L1-01, Tesco Extra Sungai Dua, 11700 Penang.
Tel: 04-6568861

Yesterday morning when I looked at Cariso's post on Tutti Fruitti set lunch, I felt a suddenly crave for it...arrggghhh, cannot 'tahan'....must eat!....I immediately IM my hubby to fetch me there for lunch. So, off we go to Tesco Extra!

Knowing what to order beforehand, I've decided to try their set C (Drunken Chicken Rice) and set F (Sizzling Lemon Chicken). The set lunch comes with cream of mushroom soup and drink.

Cream of Mushroom soup

Yes, as Cariso pointed out, the soup is definitely 'instant' type...or worse :P Anyway, the soup is really watered down and not worth to mention it. Hmmmm....why did I even post the photo of the soup?! lol...

Honeydew + Pineapple Mix fruit drink

We choose the fruit drink of the day (honeydew + pineapple mix), afterall, they call their shop 'Tutti Fruitti' right? Again, we were slightly dissapointed. One would have thought the honeydew will provide the natural sweetness to the drink right? Well, unfortunately the honeydew that they use must be the ones that taste rather bland. Not sweet at all. As for pineapple, we almost couldn't taste it...:P Anyway, stop complaining and lets go for the main course shall we? :)

Set F Sizzling Lemon Chicken (RM12.90)

I opted for Sizzling Lemon Chicken. The chicken is nicely done, crispy with sourish lemon sauce which makes it really nice...not bad at all. The only thing is the rice is too little :P

Set C Drunken Chicken Rice (RM11.90)

Hubby chose Drunken Chicken Rice. As the name implies, the tender chicken is infused with nice wine aroma, coupled with the fried rice which makes it somewhat unique. And of course, hubby ordered additional rice :P

Apart from the soup and drink, Tuitti Fruitti chicken rice is ok and reasonably priced. Though it won't win any gourmet competition, you can always hop in for a relaxing meal once in a while. :)

Firm Bean Curd With Minced Pork and Prawns

Bean curd on its own has very little flavor. However, with little bit of seasoning and ingredients, it can be easily turned into a delicious Chinese cuisine. This humble little thingy always act as a bland background for its mates. Any dish will taste good when bean curd is paired with seafood, meat, or vegetables.

Bean curd with minced pork and prawns is one my favorite dish. I learned this from my mom but i did some minor modification. I dare to say that it tastes as good as my mom's version. :) This is an appetizing dish that serves well with rice or porridge. Give it a try and let me know what you think about it.

Firm Bean Curd With Minced Pork and Prawns
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 pieces of hard bean curd, cut into bite size
3 tbsp of minced pork
6 prawns, cut into pieces
1 stalk of spring onion, cut into 2" length
1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp of fermented soy bean, smashed
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
150ml of water
3 tbsp of cooking oil

Seasoning:

Light soy sauce to taste

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a stir-fry pan, pan-fried the hard bean curd till golden brown. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, with the excess oil, saute garlic till fragrant. Add the prawns and minced meat to stir fry. Stir in fermented bean sauce, chili, hard bean curd and water. Leave the mixture simmering for a while. Add light sauce to taste.

3. Add the spring onion, stir briskly, dish up and serve hot with rice.