Second time

This was what we have last Sunday after our morning shopping.

Within a week, I have been here twice. We have never come here for its food in the past, reason being inevitably that there is simply too many such food courts and cafes around to have thought twice of coming here. I did suggested to hubby this place but somehow our intention kept putting off.

So last Sunday, I basically drag my hubby and kids here. It was warm and we almost melt under the sun. We need to walk a bit since no parking bay available nearby. However, that did not stopped us from having something warm and sinful for lunch.

This time, my girl wanted to eat paratha. She will always go for something not so ordinary for her lunch. She could go rice-less so this plain paratha was her choice for lunch.

RM1.50 plain paratha

She loves and prefer a plain paratha. 

I always have a soft spot for ayam penyet so it was not a surprise when I ordered this nasi ayam penyet when I were here. 

RM7.00 nasi ayam penyet

It served on a brown wrapping paper on top of a dulang (rattan weaved tray). The meat was nice and so was the sambal. Spicy and fragrant. 

Hubby and Jay each have fried seafood noodle. Like father, like son. Noodle lovers. 

RM6.00 fried seafood noodle

I tasted the noodle and it was good. Delicious. Enough wok hei and I were helping myself to the prawns. Found 4 medium-sized prawns on Jay's plate.

Will there be a third, fourth and more visit here?? You bet. Hubby was telling me there was so many stalls that he has problem choosing what to eat! Lol.

Our lazy brekkie

We came back here for our lazy breakfast last Friday. 

I think this food court has become our current favourite breakfast spot as we like the food & drinks; and services here as well as it is just within 5 minutes drive from our place. We came here around 9am that morning and the place were not that crowded.

Jay wanted something light instead of his usual kolo mee so I ordered this Western set for him.

RM6.00 Western set

Jan has been craving for roti telur from the stall here for a week. She simply love the crispy and tasty roti telur here.

RM2.00 roti telur *recycled picture*

This round I tried another fried dish from the fried special stall. Tried its tomato kuaw tiaw and fried noodle before so this time, I had fried mee hoon with cangkuk manis.

RM4.00 Mani chai fried mee hoon

It was well fried and dry yet the mee hoon was not too tough or cause you choke (if you get what I am trying to describe, lol). With sufficient pounded dried prawns (har bee) and fried eggs, this mee hoon was tasty and did not need any soy sauce dipping at all. ^^

RM6.00

For lunch, I bought this lo mix rice from the curry rice stall. I ate its curry mix rice before and I love its curry gravy as well as the roasted pork. The lo mix rice was as impressive as its curry mix rice in term of portion.  Taste-wise, the braised gravy was nice, sweet and thick but I personally prefer the curry mix rice more.  If only they give me their spicy chilli dip to go with my lo mix rice, it would be perfect!

Still, it was a delightful lunch for me.

Early birds

As you know, my kids are early risers. Even during school holidays, they would wake up early, around 7am no matter what time they sleep the night before. So, since it was school holiday, I were lazy to get up from bed and cook breakfast. ^^

Most of the times we went out for breakfast. So I have to plan my morning well, ie where for breakfast, what and where to do and go afterwards, etc.

One morning, I brought them here for breakfast. I wanted to go to the 24-hours eMart Hypermarket, which is opposite this food court in Batu Kawa so we dropped by here 1st for breakfast before proceed with my grocery shopping.

I like to shop in eMart as it is not that far from my place and it opens 24 hours. I can go early in the morning to avoid crowds and able to find ample parking space. Like what they said "early bird catches the worm".

This was our 1st time eating in Nanyang Food Court that morning. We always saw many crowds during the evening. Many stalls open during the night I assume. So not all stalls open in the morning but still there is many choices such as kueh chap, kolo mee, laksa, paratha, ayam penyet, chicken rice and so on.

I were thinking of laksa that morning so I opted for Sarawak laksa. They have other special such as with la la and clam but that costs a rocket and I were opting for a safer option since I never tasted the laksa before.

My normal Sarawak laksa (RM6.00). Quite small portion if you asked me for that price. Taste-wise, it was good but nothing really make me go over the moon.

I spotted a stall that selling Sibu snack. They have kompia, siu mai and other Sibu snack. I ordered its siu mai to try. RM2.80 for 3 pieces.

Soft inside but not much taste to it. I personally prefer this than those commercialised Kuching sio bee which can be overwhelming with MSG. I am more health-conscious now so I try not to take too much MSG when dine outside. Totally no MSG at home. ^^

Will drop by again as so many food I would like to taste.

Let's brunch here

It is back to school, so it means waking up very early in the morning and spending more times in my car chauffeuring my kids around. 2 weeks just fly too fast!

Over the holiday, we had wonderful and fun staycation, not one but two! It was back to nature in Borneo Highlands and enjoy the sand and sea in Damai Beach Resort.

I did not cooked breakfast much during the school holiday so I could spent more times in bed than in the kitchen. Lol. So, poor hubby, he did get much home-cooked breakfast when the kids were on holiday. Hahaha.

I did brought my kids out for breakfast or some days, it were brunches because by the time we had our meal, it was almost 10am.

For instance, we came here last week. Looking back, it has been a long time I have been to this coffee shop. It is that long!

The last time I were here, I had its super delicious braised duck with glass noodle. The stall is still there, happy to know that.

*archive photo*

So together with my mum, we came here for our brunch on one fine morning. Thanks to mum, chaperone my 3 kids is so much easier than me bringing them out myself. ^^

Lucky star was with us that morning as we were able to secure a nice table when we were there. We seated just in front of the toast counter.

Jan wanted a simple kaya and butter toast so I ordered 2 pieces for her.

Kaya & butter toast

I wanted something to wake up my taste buds so I had this super warm and delicious fish balls mee hoon soup. Love its sour, sweet and salty combination. The handmade fish balls were nice to bite too.

RM9.00 fish balls mee hoon

The big mee hoon in the soup

Mum ordered dian bing hu from the same stall. She quite like it, except it would taste better with some red wine, she said.

RM5.00 dian bing hu

Jay and Jamie shared this handmade kolo mee. Sweet sauce and elastic noodle but not my kind of noodle.

One of the nicest brunches I had with my mum and kids during the school holiday.

Weekend Menu #69 : Juicy Grilled Pork

Last week, I marinated this pork belly char siew for the potluck picnic in Damai Beach.

It was a very simple marinade and the outcome? A juicy and tasty slab of grilled pork belly.

I use 3 slabs of pork belly (around 1kg), so this recipe is for a KG of pork belly. I marinate the meat overnight. On the morning of our beach holiday, I take them out and let them sit for about an hour before grilling them in my oven.

Ingredients:

3 pork bellies (1 kg)

Marinade:

1 whole cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp shao xing sauce

1 tsp 5-spices powder

1 tsp white pepper

1 tbsp sugar

Methods:

1. Mix all the marinade and pour onto the pork belly. Mix well.

2. Marinate the meat for few hours or overnight.

3. Take out from fridge and let it cool to room temperature before grilling. Heat up the oven to 200C and grill the pork belly on wire rack for 15 minutes before turning and brushing marinade on other side and grill for another 15 minutes or till cook..

4. Use the leftover marinade to brush on the meat during roasting in oven. 

5. Let it  cool down before cutting into bite size pieces

6.. I heat up the leftover marinade till bubble and thicken before drizzle on the meat.

I find grilling in oven makes the meat tougher and drier so I personally prefer it to be bbq on gas or charcoal. Tender and juicier.

Few nights ago, I tried grilling using my flip pan for 10 minutes (on each side) under low heat and they turned out great!! I would use my flip pan for grilling from now onwards. Less smoke and no oil used!

Hubby loves it so much that he requested me to cook again today for lunch. This time I grilled it till char. Could not resist the char part.

An experimental porky burger

I love burgers from egg burgers, beef burgers to lamb burgers. Sometime I made my own burgers using those frozen chicken or beef patties that bought from supermarkets.

But I still love a tasty good pork burger but it is not available in those famous franchise food outlets. Furthermore, there are very few burger stalls that have pork patties here but they do not come cheap. 

So the one morning, I made this "barbee burger" (minced pork burger) for the family. My first experiment making patties from scratches but it should not be hard. Indeed it was very easy.

Ingredients:

500g minced pork

1/2 chopped onion

Half cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

1 tbsp cornflour

Seasonings:

Dashes of Worchesterchire sauce

Dashes of Maggi seasoning

Dashes of white pepper (you can sub with black pepper)

1 tsp salt

Condiment:

Lettuces

Cheddar cheese

Sliced tomatoes

Some pan-fried bacon strips

Fried egg

(Anything that you like to add in your burger)

Methods:

1. Mix all the ingredients and seasoning together in a big bowl. 

2. Use a cling wrap, roll the pork patties to the thickness that you like. Leave it in fridge for few hours to firm. I keep half of the patties in freezer for future use.

Made it the night before and keep in fridge till time to fry

3. Use a rice bowl, I cut my patties accordingly. Alternatively you could roll and flatten your own patties.

How thick could I go?

4. Pan-fry the patties to golden brown.

Pan fry till brown

5. Add butter into a pan. Slit the bun into half and toast the inner side for few second.

6. The fun part! Assemble your own burger. Add anything you like in your burger.

My diy barbee burger

My barbee burger. It has cheddar cheese, bacon strip, lettuce and tomato sauce to go with the chunky pork patties.

Delicious and economical!

Gratifying our sweet tooth

Brought the car over here to wash and vacuum after the Borneo Highlands trip.

So while waiting, we ordered something to bite since it was still early for lunch and their lunch only started at 11am, which was more than 30 minutes away. So I ordered something sweet and delicious for 4 of us. Something that we seldom indulge in.

I got 1 free drink since I went for the wash and vacuum. I opted for iced lime juice.

And our sweet tooth of the day! Cheese cakes! So tempting when they came on wooden serving boards.

This is Oreo cheese cake. Sweet and light, as it melt in your mouth. Can taste and bite the chunky Oreo chocolate crumbs in the cheese cake. Topped with some chocolate syrup and Oreo as the base, this is what Oreo lovers would love.

Jan ate most of this Oreo cheese cake

But I think I love this snow white cake more. Super light yet creamy and cheesy.  I wonder how much calories I gained from eating this?

Jay and I liked this snow white cake

We were full just having this 2 cakes and I did skipped my lunch that day. ^^ I do not normally into cakes but some days I would not mind to satisfy my sweet tooth especially with cheese cakes!

And how much I spent within that 30 minutes wait! ^^