pumpkins!

my first pumpkin that i planted from seed!
pumpkins have male and female flowers, the ones with the "swelling" at the bottom are the female ones and of course, the swellings are the pumpkins!

kid's party food

this week is graduating week for most of my JMC classes [as in graduating to the next book] and we always mark it with a little concert and party. all my parties at subang parade invariably have big apple donuts, conveniently picked up at their stall downstairs. this round had only chocolate and nut flavours. perfectly fine with me! i love all their donuts.
of course sausages and fries are always a favourite too.

mango pudding

i love mango pudding. it's actually like jelly, but with a creamier consistency. but ultimately it's mango flavoured gelatin.
this one was bought at a little shop on the ground floor at wisma cosway in KL [we wandered in there coz it was just outside novotel] i thought wisma cosway was an office building but the lower floors are actually retail outlets. it's a very very old one, its shoplots are in compact little rectangles, right out of the 80's! one plus point though is that the things are are much cheaper than say, 1 utama! these containers mango puddings were RM1.50 each. yum. i'll try making them one day and see how it goes.

beef bourguignon

beef bourguignon is a french beef casserole/stew flavoured with wine and bacon. i tried making it today but didn't cook it long enough so the beef was tough. the recipe said to stew it for 2 hours but i didn't read it through and only simmered it for 20 minutes!

however i did find the wine/beef stock/bacon flavour combo pretty good. it had mushrooms and onions in it which further enhanced the meaty beefy flavours.

we had it with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.

jln alor - shui kee

i'd heard so much about how great the food at Jln Alor is but every time i go there i get conned by some idiotic overpriced tourist trap restaurant. actually i still dont know which are the "good" stalls but i sure know which are the rubbish ones! definitely the first one on the road is rubbish, the one called dragon view. they charge RM10 for a bowl of fish porridge that tastes just like any granma's fish porridge! probably not as good as my own grandma's....
and hardly any meat in it!

another time we tried the hawker fare but got conned by an RM5 plate of charkueh teow that was as tiny as penang portions!

anyway tonight we were determined to find a good one along this road and managed to sit down at this chinese rice n' dishes place called shui kee. it's really easy to order here because all their dishes are clearly documented complete with price and photos and descriptions. there were 4 of us but we ordered 5 dishes so ended up eating too much and couldn't finish.

my rule of thumb is to order the same no. of dishes as diners [when it comes to chinese rice n' dishes meals]
this fried ommelette was fluffy and tasty and oily.

i love kailan and this came with a garlicky salty gravy which i liked.

of course kangkung belacan is always a favourite. the sauce is savory and slightly sweetish.

the black pepper venison was okay but the texture of the meat was dry-ish

butter chicken - creamy sauce. it was really delicious but i suppose the most unhaelthy dish here!

altogether it was RM63 for the 4 of us including drinks. not too bad considering having "value" meals at macD's would've cost the same amount!

ginger pork

I got this old cookbook called "ASIAN SPICE" by joan pereyra at a jumble sale on Saturday so decided to try one of its recipes. it's full of those recipes your mum or aunties used to make but never documented. this one was pretty good. i didn't quite follow the recipe exactly when it came to the ingredients but as with all Asian type stir fries or stews, the exact amounts are not mandatory. it turned out pretty good. flavourful and fragrant and "meaty" and i love potatoes in some sort of starchy gravy with rice. that's why the potatoes are my favourite part of chicken curry, not the chicken!

here it is :


ginger pork

Fry some chopped ginger and chopped onions in some oil till fragrant, add 500g sliced lean pork and stir awhile. add 2 sliced potatoes, 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce and 1 cup water then simmer, covered, until potatoes are soft. add 2 quartered tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. top with chopped spring onions and serve hot.

more malay food! im gonna miss this

we popped by at jaring again last sat hoping to get the nasi dagang but we were too late! at 10.30am it was already sold out. this is their mee bandung.
so we just went with the nasi campur instead, with so much choice there's never a dull moment!
damien went for the whole mother lode. kangkung...fried fish, potato cutlet and some other stuff i can't identify.
i kept it simple this time with my favourite sambal egg, kangkng and fried potato cutlet. and lots of gravy of course. [this time steering clear of the scary tempoyak!]
gav kept it really simple with just ayam percik [it's excellent here, with a great "burnt" flavour] and kangkung.