Westerners in the Middle East eat.........western food!!

the lady who made everything

here we have some croissants, fruit tarts, blue cheese and brie

muffins, apples and rolls

more bread rolls, scrambled eggs and cold cuts.

Banana Toffee Cake

what do u do with some bananas that are too ripe to eat? they're soft and mushy and have black spots all over. being chinese, i hate to waste food so...well, you bake something. most baked goods use overripe bananas that add flavour, fragrance and moisture to the finished product. This cake is really fragrant and moist perhaps because of the type of bananas I used? some types are not so good for baking but i dont know the local names. some have interesting names [pisang rastali, pisang emas] others have weird names [pisang awak]. the caramelized topping is a nice surprise. So, if you like bananas...do try this very easy recipe.

1. Cream 250g butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence till light and fluffy.

2. Beat in 4 eggs one at a time, then add 4 medium mashed overripe bananas.

3. Fold in 2 cups sifted SR flour + 1 tbsp milk

4. pour into greased + lined cake tin and bake at 180C for 30 minutes.

5. now, make the Topping: beat 45g butter, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp rum/brandy [optional] and 45 g brown sugar.

6. when cake is done, remove from oven and spread the topping all over the surface. return to oven and bake another 10 minutes until topping is set.

Butterscotch Hazelnut Brownies

I tried a new one bowl recipe today and it was so easy. One doesnt even need a cake mixer for this! It's all done in one bowl and baked in 25 minutes. Nothing could be easier!

1. Melt 50g butter [in the microwave] in a big glass bowl. Sitr in 1 Cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tbsp milk and 1 egg.

2. Stir in 1 cup sifted plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 cup chopped nuts [any kind you fancy]

3. Pour into greased baking pan, bake at 180 C for 25 minutes.


I dont know why but most of the recipes I try always end up being "too sweet" for the typical Malaysian palate. perhaps westerners really do like their sweets sweeter. Well, some of the cellgroup members liked it.

This one's a blondie, meaning it's a brownie without chocolate. I managed to take some nicer pictures this time coz it was daylight after i finished baking them.

Bibimbap

elaine and i tried to make bibimbap today. instead of laver/bracken/mungbeans/other korean veggies, we substituted bokchoy, carrot, cucumber, sweet potato leaves and chinese mushrooms. instead of beef, we used chicken. and we didnt have any kimchi! i should try making kimchi soon as the boyfriend and i love the stuff...

anyway if u wanna try bibimbap at home, for an easy recipe, go here. yes, i know..going to a western site to get asian recipes sounds bad but the fact is that its the easiest way to try to cook something if u're not that familiar with it because it'll be so dumbed down, even the dumbest person can mess it up...! one of my favourite books for asian recipes is one written by westerners [hehehe the boyfriend bought it while in the UK] because trying to learn to cook asian food from asians...is just futile. no precise measurements and most of them cook by ear [they eyeball it!]

last night we had dinner at this chinese restaurant in klang. its quite famous and popular among klang folks and my cousin even had her wedding dinner there many years ago.
as with chinese restaurants of this sort, all the usual menu items are available,like this very fattening "lemon chicken". it was quite tasty as usual, deep fried and crispy with lemon sauce but the sauce was a bit too sweet.

some tofu in black sauce. i didnt eat any of it as it was grabbed up before i could take some.

i LOVE yambasket! it's so yummy..the crispy mashed tasty yam with stir fried cubes of capsicum/onion/baby corn/seasoned pork/fried mehoon/crabstick encased inside.

the ubiquitus [spelling?] sweet sour fish dish. it's a common thing that one gets at any "chap fan" stall but well, it was yummy as always. perhaps it's yummy because of the DFF [deep fried factor] but it drives home a lil more guilt because deep frying it is bad enough but coating it in a starchy sugary sauce makes it worse!

the marmite pork was my favourite dish as it was really nice and tender with an interesting flavour that can only be described as sweetish/savory. and of course the usual mixed stir fried veggies to balance the meal off. this one had asparagus in it which i liked.

food wise it's good and cheap [came up to about RM25 a head] and their wedding dinners start at around RM450 a table which is really cheap compared to those hotels that charge RM1200 a table and serve horrible food!] but the atmosphere is really bad because of their [SCARY/HORRIFYING/ANNOYING] karaoke machines and the crowd there are made of mainly loud/rowdy/smokers/drunkards/people who sing out of tune so unless u like having lotsa smoke/noise around..u might not enjoy the experience as much.

Qatari Cuisine

This is what the boyfriend had at a Middle Eastern posh restaurant in Doha.
what looks like a giant crayfish [wonder where all the meat is located] this is why i dont like to eat crustaceans unless someone picks the meat out for me. u never know where to start looking for the meat. it just looks like a whole lot of shell to me!! these look baked. or grilled.

dhall chicken curry

roast pigeon and chips [hmm there're lotsa pigeons who often perch on my window every morning making a lotta ruckus....]

what i presume to be the same crayfish as the ones earlier but turned on their backs. looks like cheese on top.

the usual mandatory middle eastern flatbreads, all puffed up and ready to go...

dips! i wish i could try all these.i dont even know all their names but the far left one is probably tabouli, then some tomato salad, chopped olives, and at least one of them is hummus for sure.

wish i could've been there to taste all these interesting thing. there are several mid. eastern restaurants here in KL but i've never had the chance to go to any of them. in fact there was one just outside my workplace in Jln Imbi called "Al Shami" which i wanted to try for a long time now as the prices look reasonable but... I still have never been.