Satay

They say the best satay is in Kajang. I say the best satay is in USJ 18, specifically in my house. Hehehe.

Satay or sate is a dish consisting of diced or sliced chicken, goat, mutton, beef, pork or fish; the more authentic version uses skewers from the midrib of the coconut leaf, although bamboo skewers are often used. These are grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, then served with various spicy seasonings.

Satay may have originated in Java, Indonesia, but it is also popular in many other Southeast Asian countries, such as: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam as well as in The Netherlands which was influenced through its former colonies.

Satay is a very popular delicacy in Indonesia and Malaysia; Indonesia’s diverse ethnic groups’ culinary art (see Cuisine of Indonesia) have produced a wide variety of satays. In Indonesia, satay can be obtained from a travelling satay vendor, from a street-side tent-restaurant, in an upper-class restaurant, or during traditional celebration feasts. In Malaysia, satay is a popular dish - especially during celebrations - and can be found throughout the country. A close analogue in Japan is yakitori, shish kebab from Turkey, chuanr from China and sosatie from South Africa are also similar to satay. (source: wikipedia)

Reliving Memories: Food Trip in Phuket

On December 31, 2008... we were in Phuket. We slept in in the morning. We need not worry about rushing up because we had a car to use. So we drove into Phuket, looked for Black Canyon coffee for breakfast. Only to realize they moved to another location, at Central Festival mall. So we went to Coffee Lovers instead. Peter had chocolate waffle with ice cream... yes, for breakfast.

And I had waffle with cheese and ham.

Then I checked my work online and found a bunch of opps waiting for me. Spent two hours finishing them because I didn't wanna bring them into the New Year with me. It's always nice to celebrate New Year when everything you wanna do is done. So, done. Two hours in front of the public computer. By the way, we didn't take our notebook with us.

Then we drove to Rawai for lunch. Peter's favorite. We ordered and ate like there was no tomorrow. It felt like it was almost a glutony. Ouch. Forgive us Lord.

Mango salad (som tam style), grilled squid for hubby, green curry chicken, fried chicken with cashew nuts...

And 4 fresh, raw oysters for me with two glasses of ice cold lemonade (nam manaw). We decided not to eat dinner after that because we were so filled. But I got hungry at 10:00pm... 2 hours before the New Year's Eve... and there's one more thing in my food-to-eat list. My ever favorite Kanom Jin (it's a rice noodle dish served with green fish curry.

You have to eat it with raw vegetables to moderate the spicy-ness of the food. But I could jump up and down feeling so miserable with the insides of my mouth burning with hot and spicy kanom jin. Guess I'm not used to eating that spicy food anymore. But I had satisfied my tummy's thai food trip desires.

Reliving Memories: Dinner by the Beach

I used to take Hubby for dinner at Kan Eang Restaurant. It is situated along the beach of Ao Chalong, south of Phuket. I used to live nearby (Fisherman Way, Rawai) so I know the place well. The restaurant has improved so much. The ambience was nicer, more authentic, with live band playing in the background. Well, the prices had gone up too... which shocked my beauty to death. LOL. As always, we ordered fried rice (crab for me and seafood for hubby), tomyum and nam manaw (iced lemon juice). The place was still beautiful... and having dinner by the beach made it even more beautiful... we not only revived memories... we were building memories as well!

Here's my Thai fried rice - crab.

The famous Thai delicacy - tomyum (It wasn't what I expected it to be though). The last time I had it there was thicker with coconut milk, I think.. But this time, it was just with chili paste. But it was still good.

I actually had a list of food to eat when in Phuket. And fried rice crab by the beach was in it. Glad to be able to savor one of my favorite Thai fried rice flavours. Having it with tomyum and iced lemon tea was perfect. I couldn't wait to eat more Thai food! Oh, by the way, our bill came in this box... isn't it amazing? Thailand is amazing, indeed!

Reliving Memories: Dimsum for Breakfast

Everytime we go to Hatyai, either by bus, train or by car, we always end up having breakfast at our favorite Dimsum place, the Bird's Nest. This trip was not an exemption. In fact, we invited friends to join us for breakfast. I know there are a lot of cheaper and better Dimsum in Malaysia... it's just that we have started the tradition already. It's like always coming home to a breakfast... you know what I mean...

We were chatting our hearts out with friends... and we were telling them of our trip to Phuket... and I casually said we are going to revive our moments. It's actually not the right term so Mimi and Lits told me it shouldn't be so... So I said reliving the memories would be a better term. So from now on, everytime I talk about our Phuket trip... the title would be: Reliving Memories. How's that, huh.

Damansara Village

Our friends, Patrick and Josephine, took us to a seafood last Saturday. The kids were with my parents-in-law so I and hubby truly enjoyed the food...without having to worry whether the kids would have enough to eat or what... They took us to Damansara Village Seafood Restaurant in PJ (Petaling Jaya). We had big crabs and steam boat seafood with herbal soup.

These are fresh crabs, direct from the aquarium

Fresh fish

Fresh vegetables plus quail eggs, shrimp balls, fish balls, etc.

We also ordered fresh shrimps... also direct from the aquarium.

Fresh mussels

This was my bowl - first serving with cooked mussels inside.

It was really good. I don't mind going back there again.

Pancit Palabok

One of the Filipino dishes I miss eating is pancit palabok. My classmates and I (during college days) would go to Jet's Pop Garden to have it.

As we know noodle is introduced to Philippines by the Chinese. Filipinos took it and made dishes with ingredients available locally to them. Pancit Palabok is made of rice noodle with shrimp and pork or chicken sauce topped with what we call chicharon or pork crackling,hard boiled egg, smoke fish, boiled shrimp, spring onions and lemon. I haven't done pancit palabok yet. But if I can find a recipe for pnacit palabok, that would be great.

TGI Friday's Subang Parade

This has become my favorite salad - Shanghai Chicken salad at TGI Friday's. It just tastes so awesome and quite filling for a salad. I think this was the 4th time I'm having this salad over at TGIF - Subang Parade

And barbecue beef ribs - just to die for. Although I can't distinguish between that of Tony Romas' Barbecue beef ribs... but I love both. Comes in a HUGE portion. I heard that San Francisco Steak house has free kiddie meals too if you order a main entry. Great! Every steak place now has free kiddie meals. Thanks to the competition among the steak houses. We can now have free kiddie meals.