Mee Goreng Mamak

Empty plate with a lime ... waiting in anticipation for the best dish of all time --> Mee Goreng Mamak! (fried noodles, Mamak style)

All you need is fresh yellow egg noodles, chinese greens (I used bok choy/pak choi), fish cakes, potatoes, chilli paste, tomato ketchup, firm (deep fried) tofu, dark soy sauce, garlic, lime juice and some chicken meat (drumstick/thighs are ideal). I had to do it twice, given the small wok, but personally feel that it produces a better result than mass production...

As usual, add in a bit of oil on the wok. When its hot enough, stir in the roughly chopped garlic and potato slices (or in thin wedges) for a minute or two. Next is the chili paste (lots of it!), where the heat starts to kick in. Add the chicken, fish cakes, tofu and bok choy next and stir fry quickly for another 3-4 minutes before adding in the noodles. Stir as quick as you can to evenly coat and mix. Finally season with dark soy sauce, tomato ketchup, a bit of salt to taste and its done!

Serve it on a nice hot plate with a wedge of lime. Always gives the dish an extra kick with a tangy aftertaste. Enjoy!

What Scottish Breakfast?

Hoho, I'm on holidays at LAST --- for a week only though, but nevertheless, Grace is going to Greece :) ! Good sun, beautiful beaches and hopefully not too crowded, definitely haven't chilled out properly and the idea of catching up with some story book reading sounds amazing ...

Anyways, I digressed and let's go back to my last day in Edinburgh ... time to check out what the Scottish lads have in the morning ... Yes I've been lousy and couldn't resist a nice cuppa cappucino to start off

And then the full Scottish breakfast comes ... something in between a British and American fry up to put it simply. You have buttered toasts, lorne, grilled tomatoes, fried eggs, tattie scones, sausages, hashbrowns and of course, black puddings. Lorne, black pudding and tattie scones are probably the Scottish influence there.

Tattie scones is easy (bottom left of the picture, near the toast and sausage), if you remember from previous posts, tattie = potatoes basically. It's like a soft potato oatcake in a fan shape, quite thin and chewy. On the other hand, black pudding (black thing in the picture, easy to spot) is a sausage made with animal's blood, typically pig or cattle's. Yea, it sounds a little gruesome I suppose, but it's really flavorful like haggis and I prefer them in small doses, goes well with bread and other fillers.

Lorne (the piece rectangular meat near the tomato and baked beans top of the plate) is something I've totally not heard of, but apparently its some sort of squarish sausage. To me it's a Scottish version of luncheon meat (something like corned beef), too salty to me but P's a great big fan of luncheon meat and simply adores it, LOL

And do you know this whole serving is HALF a portion for breakfast? I can't imagine how anyone could take on the full monty ...

Meanwhile we had an extra does of baked beans on toast, just had the odd realisation I haven't had those for ages, weird ....

So that's most of what I had in my short weekend in Edinburgh, but hoping to make another trip in July soon when the weather is even better!

I will be heading to Greece tomorrow to slack in a beautiful island for a week :P Promise to take a lot of breathtaking views of the place and of course share some delicious photos with you all when I'm back!

Review: Awana at South Kensington

It's been 3 months since I've been home, but yet it somehow feels much, much longer than that ... It may be the working factor, which probably make the days feel more strenuous and long, or it might just be London itself, doing one thing to another non stop, and the only time you can slowdown is the weekend which is way too short to begin with :P

So with the taste of familiar dishes from home feeling ever so distant all of a sudden, P and I decided to go for some authentic Malaysian street food, albeit in a fine dining setting, at Awana Restaurant in Sloane Avenue, London.

Having been there once, I was pleasantly surprised as my initial doubts of losing the mamak stall atmosphere whilst having those street food wasn't really an issue after all. Awana proved that having authentic traditional Malaysian food in a classy setting is possible and the Malaysian cuisine is increasingly well known and accepted in London just like its other Asian cousins (Thai, Chinese, Indian etc). We had the Rewards Menu as P had enough points for redemption to get us both a 3 course meal free!

For starters, we had Chicken Satay with Homemade Spicy Peanut Sauce and Popiah Sayur Goreng, which are vegetable spring rolls served with sweet chilli sauce.

The Popiah/Spring rolls were fresh, crisp and piping hot when served, always a good sign. It was filled with minced carrots and chopped Chinese mushrooms, nevertheless I found it a little too salty for my taste, but the sweet tangy chili sauce balanced it out so it was okay.

Definitely preferred the chicken satay starter! Perhaps its the peanut sauce factor, but I found the succulent chicken pieces to be well marinated and grilled to perfection, slightly charred, just the way it is back home. Peanut sauce is delicious, I love the bits they sprinkle on which gives a chunkier texture so the sauce can hold better when you dip your satay into it. Would be more authentic if they had the rice squares (ketupat) to go with it as well! And of course, more peanut sauce, I could drink that thing :P

P ordered his favorite Bandung drink, which is a pink colored drink consisting of rose syrup with added milk, hence the color. A popular drink back home as its cold and sweet, Awana definitely created a classier version of this drink when served in cocktail style, with swirls of mango and raspberry puree, lychee juice, rose syrup, milk, brown sugar - Fruity Bandung. As you can see below, they've not mixed the drink entirely and the layers of red rose syrup and milk and clearly separated.

Definitely like the funky cocktail glass a lot ...

For mains, we chose Ayam goreng kacang gajus and Kari Ayam. The former is basically chicken fillets stir fried with peppers and cashew nuts, whilst the latter is good ol' comfort food of (corn fed) chicken curry served with coconut, potato and snake beans.

The dishes were served in a nice dark green/brown plate, giving the white rice a nice stark contrast. Somehow gives you an impression of the exotic tropical cuisine you're about to experience ...

All in all, I felt that they were presented well, nothing surprising or unexpected taste wise.. Perhaps its the choice of the dishes itself that is not too exciting, given that I had higher expectations from previous visit having things like Lobster Char Kuey Teow (Lobster Stir Fried Rice Noodles), so it's not comparable:) The only gripe I probably have, especially for P, is that the portions are too small, but then that serves as a great excuse to try out many other dishes in their menu, as we'll see later ...

Desserts was probably one of the more exciting courses given that I love and miss the kuih-muih (local Malay cakes/desserts) from home. We decided to go for Tiga Krim Chocolate - a trio of chocolate mousses, served on a crisp biscuit with raspberry sauce ...

and Dadar - a pandan flavored pancake with a sweet dessicated coconut filling, served with a scoop of coconut icecream! The coconut ice cream was Awana's own addition, but it matched the dadar perfectly as pancake and ice cream usually never go wrong together.

The chocolate mouse fits well into any chocoholic's dream, since it has white, milk and dark chocolate all in one plate. Being a dark chocolate fan, I was slightly disappointed as it was infused with Brandy or some sort of alchohol which distorts the bittersweet taste I was looking for... but that's just me :)

Feeling a bit underfed given the tiny portions, we decided to indulge in some extra Roti Canai goodness post desserts :) For those who are not familiar, Roti Canai is a type of local flatbread with many of its variations found mainly in Asia. It's a usual breakfast item or a great tea time snack. Definitely not the healthiest of all breakfast, but heck, its so GOOD!

We ordered a Garlic Roti Canai (£5.50) and it arrived on our table fresh and crisp 10 minutes later after witnessing the roti chef exhibiting his roti-flipping skills. Apparently they have a large flat screen LCD focusing on the chef and it seems to be quite a star attraction at Awana. And yes, I can feel all your wide gaping mouth at the price tag for this, especially when it's like 20 times cheaper in Malaysia, LOL. But rest assured, it's well worth every penny when its done to perfection as in Awana. The roti was garing (dry and crispy) outside, but soft inside and melts in your mouth instantly! The accompanying dhal curry was nice, mild and did not overpower the slight hint of garlic flavor in the roti. So they say leaving the best for last, in this case it was definitely accidental for us :)

Overall, Awana did Malaysian cuisine a great justice, providing creative improvisation of local dishes in a classy dining ambiance without losing the key authenticity features, very important in our increasingly globalised world of food.

A few words of wisdom to maximise your gastronomic and cultural experience at Awana: be brave, be adventurous in terms of trying out a variety of new dishes and definitely go for at least one Roti Canai!

Awana
85, Sloane Avenue,
London SW3 3DX
Nearest Tube: South Kensington

La Paradeta in Barcelona

Man, just when I was boasting about how good the weather was last Saturday, this week I'm blessed with the irony of heavy rain throughout ... and Barcelona just lost to Man U in the Champions League too!

Ah well, let's forget about the football for a moment and cheer ourselves up with a bit with some more good foodie pictures in the Barcelona dining scene :P In Barcelona, seafood is the thing to go for, period. In a land deprived of fresh and reasonably priced seafood (Britain, fyi), La Paradeta, located at the heart of the trendy La Ribera area, is the place worth queuing for , for the marisco lovers out there.

This seafood restaurant has a unique fish market concept to it, in the sense that the crabs, squids, prawns, etc are all displayed in huge plastic tubs as below. In the true market style, you order your seafood by weight, and then simply select from a few simply styles of cooking: deep fried, grilled, steamed etc. What's great that you don't often get the unpleasant fishy smell of markets, which is a good sign as it means the ingredients are TRULY FRESH.

I was brought there by K, who has roamed Barcelona so many times that he's as good as a local. We had to queue outside before it opened at 8pm, and there was already a little queue outside of enthusiastic fans of the place. Never a bad sign! :) So there you go, we chose some mussels, prawns, squids and many other interesting stuff that I never knew roamed in the sea :P

And when the dishes came, I knew we, or rather I, had overdone the ordering since I was so excited to try so many things! Look at this gigantic plate of fried goodies! Haha, starting from the left, its fried baby anchovies, then fried baby squids and fried calamari. My favorite was the baby squid, though it was a pity that the calamari was a little too rubbery for my liking. Could have been better grilled, or I've just been eating them from left to right and just got tired of them. Despite best efforts, 3 of us couldn't finish that platter, whole heartedly agreed that there was way too much fried stuff. :P

And of course we had salad, artichoke heart salad to be specific. It was definitely great to do something towards the 5 a day intake, and it's probably a hit or miss for some on the bitter/sourish artichoke hearts, but I do like them, feels like sauerkraut and its very appetizing.

Mussels in tomato sauce was good too! Never was much of a mussels fan, but the sauce was great with some crusty bread ...

Highlight of the meal was definitely the grilled dishes. The giant succulent prawns and long bamboo clams, lightly grilled with salt, pepper and a little gentle squeeze of lemon juice ---> heavenly! Cannot emphasize enough how easy cooking is as long as you have fresh ingredients, the simplest methods will suffice for an amazing meal. So its not about the fancy kitchen gadgets at all, and cooking only becomes necessarily complicated mask poor quality ingredients really.

Always a good idea to end the meal with some funky desserts too! K brought us to this little shop (forgot the name unfortunately) nearby for some designer desserts. All I remember was both were chocolate and nuts based mousse (almond and hazelnut) as everything was in Spanish and it was simply just looks based choices, :D

So if you're a big seafood fan visiting Barcelona, do pay La Paradeta a visit - they do seafood good justice. Enough said.

La Paradeta
Comercial 7
El Born, Ciutat Vella
La Ribera

Nearest metro: Arc de Triomf
Opening times: 8-11.30pm Tue-Fri;
1-4pm, 8pm-midnight Sat;
1-4pm Sun

Your M&M's dream come true

Personally, I was never much of a fan of M&Ms even though I do like things with peanuts and chocolate, much prefer Asian types of desserts like mochi or festive kuih's (cakes/snacks).

Then again, when you see billboards in Time Square like these, how can you resist? This is definitely one of the largest M&M stores I've been, and definitely a must see. I literally stood there for a minute to watch the colorful M&Ms advert board snapping photos of it in broad daylight. What a tourist :P

And you know you're in NYC when you see this! That's one hell of a sexy version of the statue of liberty :PAnd this is the world's biggest wall of M&M collection, of any color and versions. I've seen white and dark chocolate ones, and even ones with almond and hazelnuts. I was oblivious to other merchandises at the store given this huge array of variety to choose from.

They even have M&M country packs too, with them packaged nicely according to country colors in a nice gift set. Maybe a good idea for rugby/football matches ...


But the only thing that brought down my defense and made me succumb to this M&M mania is this Shrek mix, i.e. 'Ogre sized peanut M&Ms'. Man, that was a great snack before trotting off to watch Bourne Ultimatum :)

National Food

In conjunction with Malaysia's Independence Day the end of this month, I thought it'd be appropriate to list down my favourite food that I think represents Malaysia. But then due to the immense culinary diversity in Malaysia, I just have too many favourites (if that makes sense) across the different local cuisines.

Hence, if I just have to list down my absolute favourite which I think is uniquely Malaysian, it's gotta be Nasi Lemak and Ice Kacang.

Nasi Lemak typically comprises of some warm fragrant rice steamed with coconut milk, slices of cucumber, fried anchovies, roasted peanuts, hardboiled egg, a good dash of sambal (a sweet and hot chili paste with caramelized onions) and chicken/beed rendang. The meat curry can vary from seafood (squid, prawn) to chicken and more usually beef. The preparation of each ingredient is rather simple, but it's slightly time consuming since there's so many ingredients needed for this dish. I'll post one in the future with my simpler version :)

In my opinion, Ice Kacang goes perfectly hand in hand with Nasi Lemak especially if the sambal is pungent and spicy! A standard ice kacang is made of shaved ice, dollops of Gula Melaka (a local brown sugar syrup), creamer, accompanied with some red beans, jelly, peanuts, sweet corn and canned fruits to form a gigantic snow mountain. It is a good drink/dessert on a hot summer's day, or for those craving for a good sugar high, hehe.

Currently in Princeton, US at the moment. First day of training is pretty hardcore. Hope to get some good posts in NYC next week then! Stay tuned :)

Chinese Snacks

Cravings, cravings, what has it done to me? :P

I realized how much I missed this Chinese snack upon spotting the road side stall miles away, through my nose :)

Even in London, it's common to find Chinese crullers/you tiao/yau char kuey, sold by Chinese bakeries and the dim sum restaurants. It's a popular breakfast (yes, really) item in Hong Kong, served with warm congee (rice porridge). In Malaysia, it's commonly dipped in soya bean milk and also Bah Kut Teh (literal translation: Pork Bone Tea) soups.

Yet, there are many variations to this and this is my favorite one called Ma Keok (Horse's Foot). self explanatory as it looks like the horses' hoof. It's sprinkled with LOADS of sesame seeds and has some spice-y (no I don't mean hot) flavor to it. I think it's 5 spice powder or something. It's best crisp and fresh out of the hot boiling oil, cooled for a few minutes or so to allow all the oil to drip dry.

Another variation is called Ham Chim Peng. In this category, there is 3 types: salty, with glutinous rice, or with tau sar (red bean paste). You can call it a "Chinese donut", it can definitely rival the Krispy Kreme I must say. It's made out of flour, some 5 spice powder, ammonia powder and water. This is the tau sar version below.

Sinful stuff, I know. But what's life without some of them occasionally?

Granchester Meadows

The pre graduation mania is worth a post.

It's ironic to think that one should be more carefree and less stressed after final exams. Yet, it's simply just a different sort of stress with more administrative stuff to do, e.g. shifting, transport, accommodation search (for myself and parents), packing up etc etc. This was interspersed with more fun stuff like May balls, garden parties and simply catching up with friends, making the post exam 'holiday' of 3 weeks before graduation equally tiring.

I took the opportunity to walk out and about a day before my parents arrived, given that there was not much to do as most people had left, or busy with their parents, and moreover, the weather was more like summer for once. I went to Granchester Meadows to check out the B&B place that I booked for my parents to make sure it was okay. The place was pretty and the lady kindly recommended that I take a stroll to Granchester. Since I have not been there (& absolutely can't leave Cambridge without visiting it), that seemed like a brilliant option to fill up my time. :)

It was a nice, quiet stroll on a sunny yet cooling day... having some 'me' time musing over the past 3 years of Cambridge. Halfway there after 20 minutes or so the weather started to be... let's just say a bit unpredictable. Being neither here nor there, I had no choice but to pray that it doesn't rain and I don't get drenched.

This is what unpredictable British weather really means ...

The day started off like this ...

And when it was this I thought I was doomed to be drenched ...


But it progressed to this, without a single drop of rain after all, phew!

Finally making my way to the Orchard, I was keen to check out their famous tea garden for some tea and scones! They have a huge array of food, ranging from light stuff like scones and cakes to main meals like pasta and sandwiches.

I chose this gigantic fruit scone with jam for only 2 pounds, with a cuppa Earl Grey tea. Must say that I've never really been a big fan of scones, but this was pretty good and super filling! It's best eaten toasted I feel :)

Here are some pics of the beautiful tea garden and it's tranquil surroundings ...

Glad I finally made a visit there to take a long slow stroll by the river Cam before I leave... Gonna miss Cambridge a lot! T_T

Casual Calais (Part 2)

After lunch, we walked around to check out the town. When one (for me at least) visits a new place, it's always a must to track down the local supermarket as it's the easiest way to find out what are the local specialties, don't you think? We went to a local supermarket called 'Champion', instead of the larger Carrefour, and we stumbled upon a few treasures - chocs and alcohol!

As I was rummaging through the stack of dark chocolates (I need at least a 70%), guess what I found? The new trendy Chilli Flavored Chocolate by Lindt! Have tried a small chunk before in a market in Spain, but think I preferred the ones with crystallized ginger pieces in Green & Blacks, despite being a chilli lover. :P Nevertheless, P got the one with lychee flavor whilst XJ got the chilli one just to check it out.

Next up is time for the French coast. We were hanging about too long around the supermarket hence this was a rather rushed affair. Here's a cool pic of the P&O ferry that we took across the English Channel, with XJ taking one of it at the same time. Sandy beaches and gentle breeze, how I wished we did lunch the french way with a crusty baguette, cold meat and a chunk of good brie, just by the seaside. The sand was really smooth and soft, just like the ones in my hometown ...

Dinner was at a restaurant near the seaside, and here's a snapshot from our dining table of the beach, it's probably about 30m away.

This is a really colorful picture of the Salmon pate salad that XJ and A shared. Slices of hardboiled eggs, celery hearts, prawns, Salmon pate, on a bed of mixed leaf salad. Pretty good stuff especially given the simplicity :)

P and I ordered Salmon with special cream sauce which was recommended by the hostess. Served with rice and some salad, their mushroom cream sauce went really well with salmon, although it's nothing out of the ordinary nor special.

A ordered something more unique to satisfy her seafood cravings. Turns out to be sting ray (ikan pari in Malay) in a creamy mustard sauce. Mustard was too spicy for her, but its overall good. Must say the only way I knew to do a ikan pari was ikan bakar style - wrapped in banana leaves, marinaded with loads of chilli and spices before grilling/BBQ them upfront.

After dinner, it was time to rush back to Cambridge before we ended up stranded in Calais, missing the last ferry back, hehe. It was a fun road trip and my first ever in the UK, looking forward for more to come, perhaps visiting British towns this time, like Cornwall, for more seafood and authentic Cornish Pasties!

Wii went for formal

Been catching up with sleep lately, and I think I'm finally charged up to enjoy the post exam celebration. Doesn't help with the gloomy and cooling British weather that encourage drowsiness even at 11am in the day. Anyway, this is the post exam formal that I hosted for Yan who is visiting in Cam, introducing her to the art of drinking and penny-ing. Hehe

Terribly sorry for the sub par photos, but taking photos was not allowed during the formal with the Fellows around, hence the the secret snapping may not be optimal. This was the best menu of Easter term for Selwyn's formal in my opinion, so its good that we manage to secure tickets especially during the post exam season.

Starter was Beef Tomatoes with Mozzarella and Basil Vinaigrette. The melted mozzarella was pipping hot and goo-ey, perfect dressing to a rather light starter.

Highlight of the day was the Blackened Pork Chop with Herb Butter, pieces of pork chop seasoned with black pepper and herbs, pan fried till crispy and dressed with a generous chunk of herb butter, as you can see below. Side dishes were new potatoes, sweet corn and pepper slices, which make the whole plate rather colorful and nice.

I like this shot of Pecan pie in particular, thanks to P's skilled photography skills. I've never eaten Pecan Pie before and heard about it ages ago from Yan, so this was rated sub par by her, which I agree as it was too sweet for my liking really. Think Selwyn's gotta stick to what it does best, Bailey's/Raspberry/Strawberry cheesecakes. :)

After formal, we were a lucky bunch of Wii-tards and managed to secure the Wii for a whole night of boxing, fishing and tennis action :D

Last TRIPOS ever

WiiPeDidOooOooOOo!

It's over. Finally
Very surreal and it only began to sink in Tripos is REALLY over (forever) a few hours later ...

Nevertheless, I can hardly imagine a life not being a student anymore!

No, this is not a post about quarterlife crisis :P

Imagine all your life you've been just going to school, handing in homework, slacking off, skipping classes, juggling squash balls, drawing smiley faces in exams (out of desperation to write something), and only working your butt off when necessary ... Now this is ending so soon, ironically when it's probably your childhood dream come true of not having to study LOL

Anyways, let's divert the sentimental emotions to our beloved topic of food, yea? Better allocation of resources and energy (oh, you economist) :)

Post exam celebration lunch was at d'Arry's Wine Shop in the center of the Cambridge town. This is what British cuisine is all about, despite it's understated reputation of only beans on toast and fish and chips.

d'Arry's reinterprets British cuisine with a refreshing twist. It brings simple British favourites like Fish & Chips, Shepherds Pie, and the basic chips to a whole new level. The decor is quite unique, offering the dining in or al fresco (outdoors) option, but I prefer the indoors with the cozy tables and cute candle light holders made out of wine bottles. It boasts a large wine collection, which I have not tried unfortunately.

I was feeling adventurous and tried the 'Spinach, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Crepe Wrap' (£5.50), which is spinach sautéed with mushrooms wrapped in a crepe with Gorgonzola. It was served with thick cut chips (which I absolutely loved!) with a light salad and salsa as sides. It was pretty light although the cheese was strong, counter balanced with some good ol' chips fried till brown and crispy. I like how the way they stack it up too.


Another dish we tried was 'Bacon and Barbeque Chicken' (£8.95), which is chicken breast wrapped in bacon, BBQ sauce and melted Cheddar cheese, served with chunky chips and lightly steamed sugar snaps and green beans. Great balance in terms of flavours, I suspect a hint of pineapple juice in with the BBQ sauce, tasting slightly like sweet sour sauce but with a tinge of cheesy goodness, all baked till perfection.


d'Arry's strongly promote their home made puds (short for puddings) all over the restaurant signboards and menu, so we decided to check it out, ordering the 'Double Chocolate Brownie with mixed berry compote and white chocolate sauce, topped with Vanilla Ice Cream' (£4.95).

True to its name, it lived up to it's expectations. One phrase to describe it -- out of this world! The brownie was generous and warm, filled with bitter sweet chocolate and ooze the aroma of good quality cocoa, buried under a melting scoop of Vanilla ice cream, dressed in the mixed berry compote which consists of blue and black berries. Impressed with the effort at flavour mixing, as the slightly sour compote balances the sweetness of the brownie and ice cream, whilst slight bitterness of the choc came into play as well.

It's a nice place to go for a meal. But given that it's pricier than the average restaurants, save it for special occasions :)


Time for a good rest and hibernation to recuperate. Though I never believed in sleep debts ...

d'Arrys
2 - 4 King Street
Cambridge
CB1 1LN
United Kingdom