penang extravaganzaaaaa

my all time favourite food in penang is kueh teow thng. i know it's not as "famous" as char kueh teow but i really like it better than CKT. however there're good ones and blah ones. this one on Clarke st was pretty good....


full of.. chicken slices, pork balls, fishballs and.... pork intestines [forgot to inform the lady that i dont eat innards....]

here's the nice lady. as you can see...some of the best food around are not in the poshest of settings.....

this bit of chicken curry was served at a roadside [literally] stall that was packed in the morning.

the roti here is superb. the dough is thicker than most other roti and chewy but crispy at the same time. and the best part? it's only 60cents a piece!!

and here's the chicken rice from fatty loh's

along with the side dishes of pak choy, char siu, siew yoke [roasted belly pork]

the menu

Maple Syrup Scones

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 heaped tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

sift all the above, then add

• 2 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
• 1cup rolled oats

then, rub in

• 320g unsalted butter until resembles breadcrumbs.

then, make a well in the middle and add

• 8 tablespoons milk mixed with
• 8 tablespoons maple syrup

and mix with a fork. it should be firm and not too sticky. if it's too sticky, add a bit more flour. if it's too dry, add a tiny bit more milk. [have to eyeball it]

turn out dough onto floured surface, pat into 3 cm thick then cut out rounds and place onto lined baking sheet. brush tops with a little beaten egg wash.

bake at 200C until golden brown [how long this takes depends on the size of ur scones, ours were mini ones so they were done in 10 minutes] this recipe made about 76 mini scones.

all these ingredients make the yummiest scones EVER!!!! they were so delicious that you don't need to eat them with jam or anything. just on their own. buttery, flavourful and just the right texture - crisp to the bite but melts in your mouth afterwards.......

Kimchi making can be quite a nice community thing to do for some people to get together, get their hands dirty and bond.
i've always loved the stuff and have been known to eat all container full of it in just 2 days. i used to buy them from the asian food shop in hobart but over here they're only available at isetan in KL or koreatown in ampang so i havent been able to gobble any of it yet!! but, look! here's a BIG batch of the lovely red stuff.


starts off with some VERY strong smelling prawn paste. [fermented]

and some.... uh...red liquid. no idea what it is.

lotsa cut up stuff . im guessing ...onions, green onions, shredded carrot, ginger, mashed up shrimp,...and a truckload of chilli flakes!!


then, stuff the mashed up mixture between the leaves of the chinese cabbage with salt in between each layer.
keep for 2 weeks before eating.

The Christmas baking bonanza has begun!!!

I started off with some fruitcake today since they have to ripen for at least a month. I used this recipe from Martha Stewart's "holiday" edition but i won't put the recipe up here until I taste them coz if they're not nice...why should i put the recipe up? anyway..... IF they taste nice, these will be given as gifts so I made them into cute little loaves, which i'll later wrap in cellophane bags and tie with pretty ribbon. I doused them with this "Cabana" rum Matthew got from Langkawi duty free.

So, we'll see in a month's time whether these taste good or not....

I'm planning to make lotsa other things to give away for Christmas, like sugar cookies, brownies, more fruitcake.... and other stuff! so stay tuned.

Do you think this avocado is edible???

now i've eaten many avocados in my day. I love those Aussie Hass ones, they're the ones I grew accustomed to eating while at Tassie and have loved them till this day. I can eat them in just about any way..... i like them straight up with salt pepper and balsamic vinegar, mashed up and spread on toast, or mashed up with onion and tomato as guacamole, or in salads, or in California rolls.

however, i wasnt prepared for this one from New Zealand. It appeared..weird. it looked....weird. it had lotsa brown spots all over...
and near its stem spot [the spot the stem used to be] there're.... weird lesions that look like they're filled with white mould. [cottony white parts....can u see????] looked like the kinda mould u'd see on bread....
i've only ever observed this happening in the NZ varieties sold in malaysia. I think itmight be because of their shipping/harvesting procedures and not so much because of its species, because these are the same "Hass" ones from Australia.
but i dont know for sure. there's no information on the internet on what this is. mum INSISTS that it's normal and it's fine and I should eat it but i KNOW for a fact that it ISNT normal because i'd never seen it in the NORMAL avocados I ussually eat. it also appears to have "sprouted" with lotsa root-like fibres going through the whole flesh. they were tough like roots. it's not supposed to be this way, is it? all the other ones i eat are just plain buttery flesh, without roots, without fungues/spots/brown bits.


see the roots coming out of the flesh in this one??? what happened???

more fibrous roots.


this picture shows the extent of the weirdness of this avocado. here u can see the brown roots/fibre, and the "holes" which look like they're filled with white fungus. i've no idea what's wrong with it so please if anyone knows, please leave a comment to tell me if this is normal!!

I made this very digestive system friendly dinner last night. carrot sticks, toasted wholemeal pita bread, kalamata olives and hummus.

At the fruit and veggie store today i found these....
dates. actually... i like sticky date pudding but i dont like eating them just like that.

here're the fresh ones! plump and juicy! who'd have thought they looked so different from the wrinkled up ones. but i guess humans are the same. u know how those bodies in the coffins never look a shadow like they did when they were alive. although the dead bodies of our loved ones look horrible... it's a tiny bit comforting to see them that way.... it makes us realize that it's not them in the casket, just their shells..... [who'd have thought i'd think about death just by looking at fresh/dried dates?]

There was a very famous but cocky pork noodle seller at the former "kui lin" coffeetiam [kopitiam, coffeeshop, toMAYto, tomato] in SS15 but in the recent months that place has been under renovation for the new subang [smtg] hotel. so, the famous pork noodle man came over to "pomander" kopitiam in SS15 [it's on the same row as casamia and herbs and food, but closer to the casamia side]

ok it's opposite the former kopitiam called "seaview"that's now called "poh poh".still donno where it is? it's next to the..... chap fan place. still donno?? it's opposite the dentist's.

his pork noodles are very much in demand and i'd never ordered from him before as every time u try to order a bowl u'd be met with a gruff "are u sure??? u have to wait 45 minutes u know!!!!" so most of the time i decided not to since he's so NOT keen on doing my business!! but today i didnt konw it was the same guy from Kui Lin so inadvertantly ordered the 45 minute long awaited pork noodles. so i waited.

and waited.

and waited.

finally it arrived and yes, it was really delicuios since it had EXTRA cholesterol filled pork fat in it [chee yau char - those deep fried crispy pieces of pork fat] and the soup was really flavourful [perhaps, extra ajinomoto??]

however i wouldnt order it again because

a) i dont like waiting 45 minutes in a noisy crowded place

b) I dont want to get a heart attack at age 25

for those pork noodle die hards however, I guess this is worth the visit, if only just once!