One only

We went to one Ramadhan Bazaar this year (so far). I thought I wouldn't be going to any but my man asked me to go last weekend.

My man wanted to eat sup tulang that weekend. He had a craving for it. So, on Saturday afternoon, both of us went to the bazaar in Emart Hypermarket Batu Kawa. To our dismay, there wasn't anyone selling this soup. However we did bought some food home for our dinner.

Nasi kerabu, fried noodle, nasi ayam penyet

Sambal Eggs

Grill sambal stingray and sambal squid

The next afternoon, hubby suggested to visit the Satok bazaar for his sup tulang. But we went for a shopping spree that afternoon and by the time we were done, we were too lazy and exhausted to visit the bazaar. The thought of jam and crowds on Sunday further discouraged us to go. So, I guess we wouldn't be going to any Ramadhan Bazaar. In few days time, Hari Raya is falling on us.

So wishing everyone Selamat Hari Raya. And Selamat Hari Gawai to those celebrating tomorrow. Happy holidays!!

Durian flowers, an unknown

Many of you know what is durian. Some loves, some hates this unique South East Asia's king of fruit. Some would eat it as a part of dishes on table.

Unknown to most, its flowers are edible and very much a Sarawakian dish. The flowers are nothing like durian; no strong smell or taste at all. Mildly sweet, it is usually cooked with sambal belacan but the indigenous may cook it different, with santan or masak lemak style. Other than tasted it with sambal belacan, I honestly have never tasted durian flowers differently.

It was blooming again few weeks ago and I noticed few ladies collecting durian flowers on roadside when on my way to send Jamie to his kindergarden. 

There is one durian tree, a very healthy durian tree which bears flowers almost twice a year near my place. And whenever it does, you would see some people collecting the yellowish flowers that fall to the side of the road. Rather dangerous actually as the road was narrow and many cars passing along it, including me.

People selling the durian flowers at RM2 per basket. Enough serving for 3  to 4 persons.

So I saw it in the MJC pasar tani one afternoon and I decided to buy a basket. Immediately after I went home, I started cleaning the flowers by separating the flowers and the curly parts. 

Then pick out the pollen from the durian flowers. The pollen contains nectar so it would be sticky on your hands and even more if your hands are wet.

Then wash both the flowers and the curly parts and rinse well. Now they are ready to be cooked!

Ingredients:
Durian flowers, about 200-300g
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, sliced
Belacan, small piece
Dried prawns, a handful
Salt to taste
Water
Cooking oil

Methods:
1. Prepare the durian flowers. Seperate the flower from the curly/roll parts. Pick out and discard the pollen from the flowers. Wash and rinse both flowers and curly/roll parts.
2. In a wok, heat up the oil. Add in garlic and shallot and saute till fragrant.
3. Add in the belacan. Stir fry for few second till fragrant before add in the dried prawns. Mix well.
4. Add in the durian flowers and stir well all the ingredients. Saute for few minutes till the flower soften then add in salt to taste. Dish out and serve. 

Sick & some sort

It has been a crazy month for us. Almost everyone was not feeling well and visit to clinic has became a routine almost every week!

First, the little one was down with chicken pox and then bacterial infection. Then his eczema flared up but just glad that his skin problem is better and under control now.

Hubby has some sort of fungal problem on his feet for weeks and it has been getting worse after he was back from Barcelona. Then it was infected and he was on a week antibiotic course. The bacterial infection caused him having hard time walking because of the wound and pain. He took over a week leave to tend to his feet.

Jan had flu few days before her school exam started. And Jay and I caught the flu virus from her.

The virus, the feet, school exam and getting people to fix my faulty air con have been leaving me nothing but exhaustion.

What I need right now?? A breather! Yes, I would like that. And thank God, we are getting some holidays over here.  Not going anywhere special this holiday. Just want to do nothing but wake up late. Time to recuperate and recharge.

Treat me to a nice dinner

It was Mother's Day. We went to this cafe for a Mother's Day dinner.

The last time we were here was 2 years ago, celebrating Jamie's birthday. My man recommended to come here on Mother's Day as he wanted to treat me to a nice dinner. He patronises this place occasionally for food and alcohol.

By the way, this cafe does not serve pork and I did noticed it had many Malay patrons. Mostly for the berbuka puasa promotion, I think.

Back to our dinner, my man recommended its grilled rib eye so I had that. Initially I wasn't thrilled by his recommendation as I rarely have rib eye. Didn't fancy the beef taste and smell.

It took quite sometime for our food to arrive. Somehow they looked understaffed and bately able to cope with the crowd.

But my rib eye arrived first and even after I finished my plate, the kids' orders have not yet come!!

Back to my rib eye steak, omg, the plate was big!! But small chunk of rib eye but after cutting into it to show the medium rare steak and tasted it, it was pretty good!  It melt in my mouth. I didn't detect the strong smell and taste of beef. I liked it.

It sure took a long time for the pepperoni pizza to come. And we also have English Fish N Chip which I did not take photo of. They liked the fish n chip, but the pizza sauce was slightly spicy to their liking.

I ended my dinner with this classic mojito. Refreshing cocktail and I was full and slightly tipsy after our dinner. Lol. 

Gets together

When I was younger, we used to have frequent family get together dinners. Both sides of ny father and mother's family. Both are big families with all the uncles, aunts and cousins. 

My maternal side always have gathering and potlucks where all aunties showing off their cooking. My paternal side loved to hold dinners in restaurants on special ocassions. Those were the days when we were closer but as we grew up, we got drifted apart. 

Now it is getting lesser and not everyone will get together. The uncles and aunts including my parents do have a monthly dinner with everyone takes turn to treat. But if calling everyone including the cousins and their children, we could book a whole restaurant for ourselves!! 

A day before Mother's Day, we had such rare and wonderful family dinner in this Chinese restaurant in RH Plaza. We weren't familiar with this area although we used to stay nearby. As my memory served me right, there weren't that many restaurants there. Now the restaurants were mushrooming and I lost count of how many they are!! 

My 2nd uncle's wife (my dad's sister-in-law) had her birthday and invited all of us to the dinner. We were few of the latecomers as we were lost in finding the place and we took time to find a parking space. However thankfully being Malaysians, we are never punctual in time. Instead of 630pm, the dinner started after 730pm!!

On each table, we were served with some Nyonya kuehs and birthday eggs. It was all prepared and made by my uncle's daughter-in-law.  Her ang ku kueh and kueh salat were nice. A nice starter to start off the dinner and a little filler for the hungry tummies. 

I didn't took photos of all the food as everyone was famished and it wasn't polite of me to do so. But I did took few delicious and spectacular dishes, such as this mouth-watering roasted piglet. 

I don't remember when the last time I had this but this restaurant served a tasty suckling piglet roast. Everyone agreed it was the star of the dinner!! 

It was a glorious feast as we had fried mee sua, steamed fish, roasted duck, prawns etc. So many dishes that we were brimmed to the max! 

This dish (below) was something I don't get to see in Kuching. Glass noodle served with lots of garlic and ginger mixture with fresh oyster. Hardly could see the oyster and only when I wanted to eat it that I noticed there was an oyster in the ginger and garlic mix.  Interesting dish but I didn't really enjoy the garlicky taste. 

A wonderful family dinner. I got to see all my family members. Great to get connected and meet them over dinner. Not after 10pm, did we left and bid everyone goodnight and goodbye. 

Our dinner after

It was almost 6pm when the movie ended. Maybe we ate too many popcorns, none of us were that hungry. Since we were not so hungry we went to this outlet for something light. 

Thai boat noodle. I always wanted to try this Tuk Tuk Thai Boat Noodle since it opened last year but only got the chance to try it that evening.

Nice and colourful wall decoration and wallpaper, it did brought the feel of Thai lifestyle to the outlet. 

We did not order many and did not know what to expect. So three bowls of beef broth and one of tom yum broth for our boat noodle. 

I had the tom yum noodle while the other went for the beef flavour. The tom yum was nice, not too overwhelming, just nice. The beef was tender and almost melt in my mouth! 

Hubby also ordered this kao lao beef to try.  Too strong for my liking. Lol. 

To wash away the strong flavour, I had this fresh coconut juice. Nice on any warm day, which we are experiencing lately. 

That was our dinner after the great movie. And we had an early night that day as everyone was exhausted from the long Sunday. 

Pho Master

I ain't a pho master neither do I fancy Vietnamese cuisine that much but I am all out to try new dishes and challenge my palate. 

It was the case not so long ago when we walked by this eatery in Vivacity Mall. We were to catch the Avengers:Endgame movie but it was 245pm slot and we decided to settle our lunch before enduring the 3 hours long movie. 

Pho Master wasn't full so we took the table right at the front of the shop. Nice and simple decoration in the shop. I loved the wall decoration of the Vietnamese leaf hats. 

Teardrop shaped lanterns at the front of the shop. And by the way, it is a non-halal shop, so they do serve pork here!

Quite extensive menu with description in English for better understanding of the dishes and drinks. 

Vietnam is well known for its coffee but unfortunately I don't drink coffee. My man does and he ordered its milk dripping coffee. Slowly waiting for the coffee to drip into the cup. 

Soon our first dish came to our table. Lemongrass pork rib with broken rice. It may looked nothing but once you bite into the rib, it was tender and robust with flavour. We loved the pork rib. 

Vietnamese beef pho (pronounced as 'fur') was our choice and it was not a mistake to have it. The beef slices were tender and melt in your mouth. The beef broth was flavourful. 

We ordered few appetizers to share around, namely the deep fried spring rolls. Chicken meat in the roll but watch out, it was hot! 

And this crispy crepe with shredded chicken, prawns and vermicelli in it. 

Mini pancakes were nice appetizers, with crispy pancakes and prawns in them.

Lastly was the fresh summer rolls. Vietnamese cuisine wouldn't complete without those fresh prawns, chicken, vermicelli, beansprout, lettuce and basil wrapped in paper. 

A nice taste of Vietnam for us. It was quite an enjoyable lunch. 

Next to the market

I used to go to the Kenyalang Park wet market to buy my ingredients and vegetables with my mum. A once-a-week date with her.

Then I started to help my dad last year and I seldom find my mum out for market and breakfast. I ended up going to Sungai Maong wet market to get my stuff. Since then, I have been going there and get familiar with few of the vendors. 

On Labour's Day, I asked my other half to accompany me. As driver and extra hand. Lol. I need to buy a lot to fill up my freezer since I need to replenish the meat. So after getting all the necessary meats, hubby suggested for a breakfast at this coffee shop which was next to the market. 

Since we had never try this place out before, I guess it was a good idea to do so that morning. 

Sungai Maong Cafe, properly named. I saw only 4 stalls operating, such as the yue tiaw, kolo mee and kampua, laksa and fried kway tiaw stalls. It wasn't that packed that morning. 

I settled for Sarawak laksa as it has been a while since I had it. Luckily it was a good choice. The laksa turned out nice. 

RM5 for this normal serving. Just nice for me. And I also bought some yue tiaw home, so I got to take one piece to go with my laksa. 

Hubby went for the kampua. Sorry, no photo taken but he commented the kampua was good. As authentic as those in Sibu. 

We also shared this big plate of fried taugeh kway teow. So big that we could not finish it. RM5 for this lovely fried kway teow.

As for the kids who stayed at home, we bought them breakfast. Kolo mee and fried kway tiaw, which ever they desired. 

I would not mind buying breakfast hone from here whenever I come to buy my stuff at the market. Just a stone throw away from the market. And the food tasted decent too. 

At night

After the kids had their swimming lesson and took their shower, we went to Lok-Lok for dinner. The last time we were here was last December when Jan and Jan went to Sibu.

It was a nice, windy evening to have lok-lok but we worried that it may rained so we seated at the shop front.

Hubby and the boys picked whatever lok-lok that they fancied while Jan and I went for nasi lemak. I remember that the last time I was here, I went for Mee Jawa but it was too spicy for me. This round, I tried its nasi lemak. It wasn't that spicy. The chicken curry was nice but the anchovies sambal was spicy. A hint of fragrance in the rice which was soft and fluffy.

Overall, it was nice and I enjoyed it. Even Jan also liked it. No complaint of spiciness from her, that was a surprise.

The lok-lok that the boys picked. Some were cooked in hot water while others are reheated.

When asked whether they liked such dinner or not, the boys immediately said yes and much better than eating dinner at home. Geez! Indirectly, they wanted to complain about my cooking some more?!