sorry for the bad pictures but my camera just seems like it's not able to focus very well nowadays...am i doing smtg wrong!???
it just CANT go auto anymore.

ystd shaun and carol came over and we made scrambled egg and sausage sandwiches for the worship team. [coz they often come early in the morning before service without breakfast]
as usual my mum ended up taking over whatever I'm doing because she can do it "right" [and i can't] so she scrambled all the eggs.
i wrapped them up in plastic sandwich bags.
scrambled eggs with sausage really go nicely with hot toast.

time for a candy post!
I love Lindt chocolates. especially those Lindor balls with the molten centre. [fanyin gave me 3 of them one time and i ate them all at once!]
yeah... the only problem is I can never stop at one. a student from JMC gave me a box of these and i ate 5 at once [bad bad bad....] these had whole almonds in them, with a creamy centre. the smooth swiss milk chocolate just melts in your mouth.
I think my reaction to good chocolate has always been like a boa constrictor kind of approach.... eat it all at once coz u never know when u're gonna get someore....

and so it is. I don't care for Malaysian cadbury or vochelle...these are like... cardboard to me. but whenever I chance upon something from paachi or lindt or australian cadbury, they disappear quickly.

Complicated lasagna not that i needed yet another overload of fat and carbs, but I somehow got involved in a lasagna making fest last week. Meat sauce, cheese, pasta sheets, milk, butter. what's not fattening in here!?? [perhaps only the tiny bits of chopped carrot] I wonder how the Italians ever came up with something soooo..... imbalanced. I mean...when one thinks up a meal, one would ussually include carbs, protein and fiber, right? that's what i was taught to do since young. that's why chicken rice comes with a serving of cucumber, along with the rice and chicken. that's why a good maggi mee must have an egg and vegetables thrown in to make it balanced. that's why we always have a meat and veg dish with our rice when ordering "chap fan". but somehow that rule doesn't apply to lasagne. just lotsa lotsa protein, dairy and carbs! which is YUMMY!!!!!!
so, here's the white sauce that ended up being too thick.

layering the layers.

boiling the pasta sheets.

and sensing that we didnt have enough carbs, we also made potato salad with lotsa mayo. and bacon. [see what i mean!]
the finished product

Yu Kee bakuteh in SS14 to balance up the meal, one must have some greens. i always love choy sum with oyster sauce and fried onion.

as always, the bakuteh here is tasty but boy have the prices gone up like MAD! it's RM15 per head now! since when did that happen? :( man, inflation is really hitting the roof now.

Hosanna at SS13 [next to 3K] Subang Jaya
Being a subang jaya person I try to find all the good places to eat here. My criteria for a good place to eat has 3 things that top the list - tasty food, must be cheap, comfortable ambiance. most of the time you'll only get 2 out of the 3 but IF you hit 3/3 you're lucky.

My favorite place to go to after church is this kopitiam at those SS13 flats. It's near to church, has a wide variety of meals to order and the owner lady is always smiling and friendly. there's wantan mee, curry chicken wantan mee, chicken rice, hakka mee, pork noodles, ipoh kueh teow, lam mee, char kueh teow and other things I dont remember. that's coz i tend to order the same thing every time i come here. the pork noodles [above] are always good, with a porky soup and smooth rice noodles. the only thing i dont like about it is how there aren't enough greens.
but some people like it that way.
the hakka mee is fragrant and slippery, with lotsa pork fat [hey that's what gives it the fragrance!] and minced pork, and sliced char siew and my favourite choysum greens. still not enough greens but im the sort who likes the greens to be more than the meat or carbs. anyway, the prices here are still in the region of RM3.80 per serving so it's the best place to go for tasty cheap hawker fare.

Ka Fei Tiam [or was it "Team"?]
around Section 14 we chanced upon this place. trying to mimic those other chains like uncle lim's or old town kopitiam or ipoh coffee, this place serves up all those usual things like all sorts of coffee in every combination imaginable, as well as staples like kaya toast and soft boiled eggs.
i tried to order the century egg porridge but they didn't have it, so i tried to order the wantan mee but they didn't have that either. finally i chose the first thing on the menu i saw, and ended up with this.
i THINK it's supposed to be "assam" beehoon with curry but it didn't taste one bit assam-ish. the sambal was tasteless except for sweetishness and HOT.[that's not a good sambal] i think sambal ought to be predominantly savory with a tiny bit of sour and sweet. the curry was not fragrant either...in fact it was just watery and bland.
gavin's fried rice. it doesnt look that appetizing either but maybe he liked it. i didn't ask.

Madam Lim's at Kelana Jaya [next to Giant]
I walk by this place everytime I go into Giant but until today had never eaten there. it's at the corner of the wooden "stalls" just outside the giant carpark. at lunchtime it's crowded and the aroma of freshly made nyonya food made me salivate so today we finally sat down there and looked at the menu. there were ala carte items as well as individual items like fried rice or fried noodles. we ordered rice and dishes. since it was crowded we expected the service to be slow but we were pleasantly surprised when everything arrived promptly, hot off the wok.

the stir fried kailan was good.
so was the claypot tofu with eggy sauce, bits of broccoli and cauliflower and fried onions.
the chicken paprik was not as spicy as it looks,in fact it was quite mild. sourish and saucy... i thought this one was only so-so.
the special "XO" omelette which was..... a very generous portion, moist and fluffy on the inside.
overall everything was pretty good and pricing is really cheap. most of the items are between RM4-5 each.

I love pesto. I used to buy it in plastic round containers from the greek deli I worked at in Hobart. I haven't had any for a long time though, ever since coming back to Malaysia. Delicious by Ms Read serves up a really good basil pesto pasta but it's really pricey.

When mum brought back a bunch of basil from the morning market, I had a great idea! The ingredients were really expensive but this time I really wanted to do it, so I did.

The recipe, from Jamie Oliver

1/2 clove of garlic
pinch of salt and black pepper
3 handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked and chopped
a handful of pine nuts, very lightly toasted
a good handful of grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil

method:
pound all of the above, in the above order using pestle and mortar or food processor if u're lazy like me. season to taste, then add more oil or cheese according to taste.

it looks ugly but is really yummy mixed through hot pasta.

speaking of pasta, I tried a low fat creamy pasta recipe.
it turned out okay but of course...nothing beats the real bacon+egg yolk carbonara recipe.

creamy pasta

1. fry some chopped onion and garlic in oil till fragrant.
2. add 300g of whatever processed meat you have lying around, ham or sausage or pepperoni. also add 1 cup sliced mushrooms and 1 cup peas.
3. pour in 1/2 cup chicken stock, let it simmer. mix up 1/2 cup of cornstarch with water, then mix that with 375ml evaporated milk. add that to the pan.
4. stir, let it boil and thicken.
5. sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve over cooked pasta.