my quaint world

Woa guys, check this out - Noble House reviewed by our very own food blogger from Klang, Jackson.

My tummy didnt stop growling since I saw those pictures :)

I wanna go there next time I am home!!!

My mind has been constantly about Japanese cuisine lately! I couldn't get my hands on good sushi (at reasonable price) so today I decided to take it in my own hands.

Yep, I made California Sushi and Tofu Mushroom Miso Soup.

But I couldn't find my sushi mat so I had to improvise and rolled it on silver paper. They were all out of shape!


Miso Soup (portion for 1)

- 3 cups of water
- 1/2 pack of Shimaya Bonito Dashi
- a handful of wakame
- 30 1cm cubes tofu
- many many mushrooms
- 2 tablespoon Shiro Miso paste

One of the little wonders in the world :)

Dip your first scope, aw the dark glowy chocolate melts your heart. You yearn for more.

Just as you thought it gets too heavy, you'll be surprise by the light refreshing tangy feeling of the crème brulee hidden beneath that oasis of chocolate.

Then you'll strike something hard, mmm thin frame of cookie with the mysterious crunch of hazelnut.

Phew you couldn't ask for more - only Pierre Marcolini's Chocolate Creme Brulee!

True bliss.

Mmm, another post about food. I thought I should share about this very delicious vegetable only found during winter time called WIFLOOF. Not sure if this is the spelling in english. This is what I see on the tag in the supermarket.

I've never seen wifloof before in my life till I arrive in Belgium. Do we have it in Asia? I've grown to really really like it. Winter is gonna be over soon though :(

Anyway, this was my sunday dinner, perfectly done by Mr D.

Super-long Sausage from morning market


Wifloof - soft, smooth with slight hint of bitterness


Potatoes - boiled in special recipe


He also made a big pot of witloof soup. That'll be my dinner for this entire week. Mmm.

Lately I've been spending all the teeny weeny bit of free time I have absorbing all the lovely and yummy food blog. Yea, I have been dreaming about food back home. And the food blogs just make it more and more desiring. It makes me drool!

Check it out. These are the usual ones I check (and I keep them listed in my Google Reader)

Little Corner of Mine - lotsa baking and local malaysian dishes

Lily's Wai Sek Hong - lotsa malaysian cooking and also baking

Hochiak! Delicious Asian Food - lotsa easy home cooking e.g bee hoon soup and mee hun kueh!!!

Authentic Malaysian Cuisine & Food - lotsa spicy malaysian cooking

Tonite, while I was drooling over my pc, checking out backStreetGluttons.Malaysia (always featuring yummy hidden corners in KL and Klang Valley), I came across a new blog - Living in Food Heaven by Jackson Kah. He's from Klang.

As I was busy nosying about his blog as it contains many many ideas of yummy food to find in Klang. Many of the places I know and I am trying to store in my mind the long list I have now, so that I can go discover as many as I am able when I am back home. Sure to be fat!

AND recently, Jackson just opened his very own, Book Valley Cafe, featuring the most tantalising 'Nasi Lemak Klang Special'... mmm

SO I was looking frantically all over for the address of his cafe. Found it. Trying to recall where it is. Name of the street looks familiar.

THEN, I recalled. And laughed to myself really loud. Book Valley Cafe is just beneath my mom's dance studio! Such a coincidence! And this time back home, surely I will not lose my way to finding the drool-licious 'Nasi Lemak Klang Special' :)

This weekend, we have been cooking. I've been a really good cooking instructor. If you want the recipe, just ask ;)

Saturday's Menu
White Rice
Beef and Bellpepper in Black Bean Sauce
Stir-fry French Bean and Carrot Strips in Oyster Sauce

Sunday's Menu
Garlic Fried Rice
Ayam Temperah
Stir-fry Cucumber in Garlic
A-B-C Soup

Monday's Menu
Chicken & Mushroom Bee Hoon Soup (from yesterday's left over soup)


Yummy!

On Sunday night, we were invited to a real Belgian feast - Mussels, Fries and Beer.


Everyone keeps eating and drinking and eating and drinking... It was a free-flow mussels night.


And the mussels was really yummy. I can't have enough of it. I had 4 servings.

Burp... yes, am guilty!

Err, yes, we ate a horse steak on Friday night.

I had a colleague from Singapore who was in town. He asked to be brought to a real Belgium restaurant. Being a nice belgian, Mr D brought us all to a restaurant - Horse House Restaurant.

Apparently, this restaurant in Vilvoorde (small town where I live), specializes in lean, sweet horse steaks and has been popular for 4 decades. Have to queue to eat!

Its not the typical kind of horses - special breed called 'Belgium Draught Horse'. They are use in the fields normally. Very strong and hardworkers.

It was pretty good but err... I am not sure if I will eat it again.

Its all in the mind though.

Well, ma first attempt and it was a success! Of course, its cooking with assistance - a faraway phone call to my ma + Julia :)

Long Bean Rice

Ingredients
4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 large onion (finely chopped)
1 bowl of haebee (dried small shrimps)
1 bag of long beans (cut into pieces of 1 inch)
7 dried mushrooms (finely sliced)
1 piece of chicken breast meat (diced)
10 pieces of medium peeled shrimps (cut into small pieces)
3 cups of uncooked rice
Salt, Sugar, Pepper, Light Soya Sauce, Dark Soya Sauce

Instructions

1. Heat up wok with adequate amount of olive oil (healthier!)
2. Fry garlic, onion till light brown
3. Add the haebee and fry till fragrance
4. Add long beans and dried mushrooms. Add chicken meat and shrimps
5. Add salt, sugar, pepper, soya sauce and taste
6. Add uncooked rice + 1 cup of water
7. Add dark soya sauce to get preferred color :)
8. After this, put everything into rice cooker and add water and cook as per normal

Serving

This portion served 3 of us + 2 lunchbox for lunch at work next day :)

So yummy till I forgot to take a commemorative picture!!!

Feel like cooking :)

Never did I thought one day I will feel this way.

I just wanna cook cook cook and make great dishes.

STILL I am just cooking-day-dreaming.

Oh by the way, its great having a guest. Even greater when my guest is a good cook.

Julia sure can cook. Also, she's Cantonese so she make great yummy rich and healthy soup.

We have 2 visitors this weekend - Julia and ma sis, Kelly.

We cooked teochew porridge for lunch yesterday. My sister tried to give a hand in helping. This is what she made.

Well, we had a good laugh!

Yummy!

My first attempt to cook meself a dinner.

Cooked rice (leftover from sunday's dinner)
10 Long beans (cut into 1cm length)
1 Carrot (cut into tiny strips)
3 Dried mushroom (soaked in water and cut into tiny strips)
3 Cloves of garlic (chopped into tiny tiny pieces)
3 Shelled prawns (cut into 4 pieces each)
1 Ginger (just tiny piece)
1 Small onion (small slices)
1 Chili (chopped into tiny pieces)
1 Egg
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, thick soya sauce.

First, heat the pan. Throw in the garlic and onions. When it turns golden, add the prawns and ginger. Then the mushrooms. Afterthat, throw in all the long beans, carrots and chili. Add salt, pepper and water. Let it boil so that vege will be softened. Then the rice. Open a hole in the middle, break the egg. Mash it up. Then add soya sauce for the taste and colour.

Hokkien people like food in dark colours ;)

But well, as usual when I am cooking, something always goes wrong - when the fire started, wok get heated and I get panicky. So in fact, I toppled 1/2 bottle of the pepper into the wok :-/

So, it was a PEPPER fried rice I had instead with lotsa ketchup!