Miscellaneous Picture #95: cook in

A compilation of food photos. Food that I cooked lately. Some day I eat out but other day, I would cook in when I am inspired and not lazy to cook. 

Hakka salted mustards with duck soup

Chicken curry, I used A1 premix curry paste

Chives and prawns omelette

Simple lunch, reheat braised pork leg and stir-fried lady's fingers

Steamed prawns with garlic & Chinese wine

Dinner on one evening

Do you normally eat out or cook and eat at home?? 

The usual

We didn't get to eat the kolo mee the other day when we were here, so this round, the following Saturday, we visited this food court again for breakfast. 

It was slightly before 9am and the food court wasn't so packed. We placed our order and soon enough, our food came. 

Hubby's favourite chee cheong fun stall was here. He usually order its prawn ccf (RM5). 

I went for seafood mee hoon that morning. Yes, lovely and tasty, in my own opinion, much better than over here. 

The others had the usual, kolo mee. Yes, I am usually the odd one in the group, having different food. Lol. 

You say potato, I say...

Potato!!  It has been a while I bought some to cook. Usually I would stir fried it with bacon or add to my sandwich, or make my family's favourite, Cheesy potato and onion bake. 

Last week, I cooked this potato with mince dish. Very easy recipe. And went so well with white rice. 

Ingredients:
2-3 medium sized potatoes
Minced meat, about 200g
Salt and pepper to taste
Light soy sauce to taste
Dashes of dark soy sauce
Water
Cooking oil

Method:
1. Marinate the mince meat with light soy sauce, white pepper and salt.
2. Peel the skin of potaties. Cube and soak and rinse with water.
3. In a pan, heat up 3 tbsp cooking oil. Add in minced meat. Saute for a while till turn colour then add in potato cubes.
4. Cook for about 3 to 5 kinutes then add water. Let it simmer.
5. Add light soy, dark soy, salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes.
6. Optional : before dish out, add some chives and do a quick stir. Or garnish with chives or spring onion on top.

Original Dapo

I  have been searching high and low for a nice Nasi Kerabu in Kuching lately. And I found this cafe in Rubber Road which was recommended by some to be the nicest around. 

Dapo Cafe, opened and operated by Kelantanese entrepreneur.  This cafe is famed for its authentic Kelantanese food such as nasi kerabu, ayam percik and nasi dagang. I get to taste a true, original nasi kerabu in Kuching! 

The cafe has been around for few years now. Same row with Old Rex cucur udang cafe. It was just that I rarely ventured into that part of the city. Forget about going on weekdays, it would be a hassle to find parking at all.

On Saturday afternoon, we went there for lunch. Luckily it wasn't that packed, maybe because it was after 1pm, over lumch hour. We found a nice table in the cafe.

A big menu on each table, acted like table sheet.

A young friendly waitress took our order. In few minutes time, our drinks and food came.

Hubby had the special nasi kerabu (RM8), with whole thigh.

The rest of us went for normal nasi kerabu (RM5) with a request of seperate gravy instead of gravy pouring all over the blue-coloured rice.

How to eat?? Mix everything well and dig in!

We enjoyed the nasi kerabu very much. From the fish crackers to the ulam and chilli, it was appetizing and delicious. As others said, this place served good nasi kerabu. We agreed to that! 

Back to it

Two mornings later, my man was early so we went for an early breakfast after send the boys to school. 

He commented he still prefer the kolo mee from this coffee shop than here, so I obliged to his request and we were back to his current favourite place. 

I decided to try something new on the menu that I had not try before. Seafoof noodle!! I requested for mee hoon instead of noodle. 

RM7 seafood mee hoon

My seafood mee hoon, the dry version. Hubby had his usual noodle and soup set, so I did not want soup version for my mee hoon. 

Soup with noodle RM6

Noodle and soup were served seperately. Hubby enjoyed its clear soup of mixed stuff. 

It was a cold morning that day as it rained the night before. So a warm fresh soya milk for me. No sugar added, so you need to add your sugar yourself as each table is provided with a small container of white sugar. 

Fresh soya milk

I also brought some sio bee (siew mai) home as my boys love them. The sio bee was nice as the skin wasn't that thick, which I liked most. 

RM8 for 10 sio bee

We headed home just before the rain started to pour. It was a very cloudy day that Thursday. 

Once in a while

Since this coffee shop has become our current favourite place for breakfast, we hardly go any place for breakfast on weekends.

We used to patronize this coffee shop quite frequently in the past before the new coffee shop opened last year. Both coffee shops aren't that far to one another. But we prefer this place more bacause of variety.

It was one of the weekdays when my man woke up very early. He suggested for a breakfast date with me after dropping the boys in school. Initially he wanted to go to our current favourite shop for brrakfast but I told him that it would be good to patronise the othet coffee shop once in a while. As matter of fact, I missed its mixed pork soup that morning.

So that was how we ended up here that morning after a long absence.

Business was still good, it took quite sonetime for our food to arrive. 

I went for kolo kway teow that morning. Slightly bland, but never mind, I can add some sliced chilli and soy sauce to it. 

Hubby had its set as usual, ie plain noodle with mixed pork soup. We always requested for liver, pig's blood, minced meat balls in our soup. 

I don't take liver but I don't mind the blood cubes.

My craving for its soup was satisfied that day. :) 

Unusually quiet

It was the last day of 2020 CNY. Chap Goh Mei morning. Everyone woke up early, an usual routine on weekend.

We went out around 8am and drove to this food court opposite Emart Batu Kawa for breakfast.

The food court was so unusually quiet, it looked deserted with most stalls closed. Maybe because it was Chap Goh Mei, most stalls were not opened that day. 

Not many option but we ended up with roti canai stall. The kids had its roti telur except Jamie, who is allergic to egg. He had roti canai. Plain flat bread for him. 

The curry dipping was good and spicy. I liked it. 

The fried mee hoon that I had was nice as well. Authentic Indian taste, you could detect the Indian spice and flavour. 

After our breakfast, we went for our grocery shopping in 24-hours Emart. Quiet as well. Not normal sight as usually there was crowd even early in the morning. Maybe everyone gone to Giant Hypermarket which was having a big close down sale that day. Anyway, we didn't mind at all. We enjoyed our relaxing and hassle-free grocery shopping for the first time. 

My carrot girl did a pose! :) 

Weekend Menu #95: quick stir-fried pork belly

It has been a while since I posted a recipe in my blog. It is not that I don't cook. I do. Almost every day. Mostly simple and easy dishes. Nothing extravagant to post about them. 

Okay, it was on the 8th day of CNY. My home-cooked dinner that Saturday evening consists of steamed prawns, sticky pork belly, lotus & peanut soup, stir fried napa cabbage and few luncheon meat for the kids. 

My first time cooked this sticky pork belly. And it turned out good, slightly salty but great to go with rice!

Actually it was an impulse cooking, I had pork belly in the freezer, so decided to use it up. 

Ingredients:

Pork belly, sliced thinly

Cooking oil

Dashes of dark soy sauce

Marinade:

1/3 cup light soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

Pinch of salt and white pepper

1/2 tsp 5-spices powder

Methods:
1. In an airtight container, add in the marinade and pork belly. Cover and let the meat marinated for few hours.
2. Heat up a pan with cooking oil. Add in the pork belly with the marinade sauces.
3. Stir fried for 8 to 10 minutes under medium heat. Lower the heat and cook till the pork belly is cooked. Add in dark soy sauce. Mix everything well and let the sauce reduced and thicken. 

Miscellaneous Picture # 94 : randomly

Back to school! 

Shops along Bishopgate lane

The feline is not for sale!! 

A big mug of teh c to start my weekend

Pan-fried pork & chives gyoza, finished up the leftover fron CNY streamboat

Pan-fried nian gao with egg. 

A Happy Chap Goh Mei 

to my blogger friends and readers!! ❤️ 

A long time

I thought I would go back to Small Coconut in 38 Food Court, MJC any time soon but I didn't. It took me a long time to finally go back and try out other dishes in Small Coconut.

I went there early this week. With my girl. It was slightly after 11am so not many people around. The stall was opened but a Malay girl told me that they ran out of chicken that day. Only fish and lamb were available.

I saw that they had smoked duck carbonara on the menu so it was a relief when the girl told me that they had that. So, carbonara for me then.

Smoked duck carbonara RM16

It was good. Very creamy and the portion was just nice for me. The smoked duck wasvwell seasoned too. I really enjoyed my carbonara.

Fish & Chips RM10

My girl went for its Fish & Chips. A huge fillet with fries, coleslaw and thousand island dipping. For such portion, RM10 was cheap!

First this year

Busy Tuesday, few days before CNY. Did some cleaning and wiping with my girl in the morning. 

Around 11am, we went to this food court in Stapok for lunch. We have not been to this food court for quite sometime. This was definitely our first visit this year. 

Our lunch that morning. 

Fried mee hoon for my girl. She loved the fried mee hoon from the char chu stall. Enough wok hei, neither too dry and oily. RM3.50 for this plate of fried mee hoon. 

I had recovered from my cough and flu, so I was craving for something flavourful and spicy. Option of Sarawak laksa or curry mix rice. Ended up I went for the curry rice. I missed the curry rice here. 

RM6 for my lunch as I asked for an egg. RM5 for normal portion without fried egg. 

After we were done, I drove Jan to her school. Then, drove to the boys' school. As I was almost there, an unidentified mobile phone number called me. I didn't picked it up at first. I don't answer such calls normally but since it called me the 2nd time, I decided to answer it. 

Luckily I did, as it was from the courier service guy. He had a parcel for me but since I wasn't at home, he was nice to tell me that he will put the parcel next to my shoe rack. 

My first parcel this year was from Diana of Travel & Living Journal of DT blog. I was expecting her mail but least expected was her gifts. I didn't expected to receive so many gifts from her. 

Souvenirs from places she had been to. Thank you so much for the gifts, Diana. More travelling and wonderful 2020 to you.