When i was a kid, my aunt always used to called me a Ham Choy Mui...because i was a grubby kid. Ham Choy means grubby, like you know, the unwashed bantal busuk kind :). However, i hope that did not really translate to er the fact that i like salted veggies a lot.  Ham Choy is just one of the types of salted preserved  vegetables found in the Chinese cooking. There is the mui choy that you find in Mui Choy Kau yoke, or Tung Choy or even Char Choi, in which you find in Szechuan noodles.

The salted veg adds zest and sometimes spice to your dishes, but don't necessary are the healthiest kind of food around town. I have to say i love all of them but of late with the wave of fake food around and the high salt content, i try to limit the dosage i need to eat. :)

Ham Choy Chu Yoke or Salted Veg and Mince pork is one of the dishes i used to eat when i was a child. Being extremely fussy with food, pork was of the ways my grandmother and mother tempted me to eat. I guess this dish must hit a spot. Very simply, you just need mince pork { marinate sikit with some soy sauce and cornflour [ gets rid of smell ] ) and ham choy. This ham choy is from Ipoh by the way. You need the dark leaves kind, which so far i only see in Ipoh.

Soak in water before cooking sprinkled with a bit of sugar to take the edge of the sourness.

Heat the wok, add a bit of chopped garlic, and stir fry the pork. Add salted veg in the pan, when almost done, a bit of dark soya sauce and water. Thicken the sauce to your liking. As we grew older, fresh chilli was added in to give it a kick. With a bowl of fresh, hot white rice, this will surely whet your appetite. Alternatively, you can replace Ham Choy with fresh belimbing ( yeap, starfruit - the tiny kind )

Note: in most KL supermarkets you find the Ham Choy with no green leaves, you can use that but add in onions and carrots to give it a different twist.  Or, if you don't like this with pork, boil soup!!!

P/S: This is quite a simple dish to replicate at home. 

Move over Ninja Joe, it's Neko's Pork Burgers (with Jarrod & Rawlin's help)

Ok, my name for the burger might not be as catchy as Ninja Joe. ... But i think my Jarrod and Rawlin's pork burgers are much better than Ninja Joe'! In terms of size that is. Recently Ninja Joe pork burgers open up in Sunway. Gosh you can see the stars in my family's eyes when they saw the word pork burgers...  kinda looks something like the below

Picture Courtesy of Ethan @ Onion Head

Pork burger is not a rarity in KL, just that it's either to far to go and eat it or sometimes to fat to eat. However we did manage to try Ninja Joe, my opinion it is a tiny bit too small even for someone who eats as little as me and looks a bit like my jollibee picture. ( But it definitely tasted better than Jollibee) I like a good burger that is not so processed or sounds too fast foody but once in a while i will try these places.

Pork... mmmmmm

Back to the story of my Neko Burger. No, no cats inside. Bought the patty from J&R. Cost quite a bomb as well for 4 pieces. Buns courtesy of Carrefour, which was pretty awesome. Since i was lazy to eat out ( eat out also got lazy one ) all i needed to do was shallow fry the burger patties and add the salad and the other condiments. The patties are thick so they take about 6-8 minutes to cook on both sides. Pork needs to cooked thoroughly and to test if it is cooked, poke it with a fork. If the juices ooze out means it is about nicely done. If you like it more cooked, keep it a bit longer.

Condiments are another important thing for the burger, i kept it simple with some cucumbers, lettuce and a dash of tomato sauce to add some tang. And slap the warm toasty bun on as well. And wa la! Dinner is served!

While i rarely like junk food, i do not mind my own home made burgers ( or rather 3/4 store bought versions ) at, least you can control the condiments you add in! 

Okay... this is a lazy one pic post :) 2 more weeks to CNY everyone.

Home Cooking: Mee Suah

I am going for a 2 photo post, cause i was trying to finish up an anime post on the other blog...  ... Lazy lah sometimes so many blogs.

I must admit I do like noodles and i like food that is considered bland or in Cantonese called "ching". Despite being a food blogger, i love my home cook food more than i like eating out at times and make it a point that I only eat out once in weekdays. Home cooked food keeps you healthy and pretty much in touch with your family members as you can sit down and catch up with them. ( Plus: you weigh less as compared if you eat out every day )  I come from a family where food is the essential item that keeps a family together ( both sides my dad and mom's ) and that ladies in the family, despite being busy, must learn how to cook simple dishes. Eating out 24x7 was frowned upon...  and a girl who cannot cook nothing but instant noodle lagi more frowned upon( i remember how the aunties tsked - tsked their heads, when one aunty can only and prefer to do the dishes ) and... it makes the entire family extremely fussy eaters.

My mom, is the queen of noodles of any form. Except for Beef Ball noodles - which she suggests we go out and eat that instead of making, she can make most noodles dishes. From normal yellow noodles, kuey teow to ... soya noodles, she can whip up something with it. My favorite however is Mee Suah. Yes, it looks and is normally called sick people food being so pale and blandish looking but to me the secret is in the soup as well as the noodles. The base is just good chicken stock with some ikan bilis thrown in. And walah... you have an awesome dish in the making.

Mom gets the noodles from a local grocer, but there was one time we got some from Melaka which was quite nice. This is one tricky noodle to eat, my brother hates it cause it absorbs liquid quite fast and faster than he can eat it.  Throw in some greens, lettuce or anything to give it the veggie base.It doesn't look like much, but i have long learned that looks for food can be deceiving.

Long time ago, mom used to add liver ( yucccccccccccck ), pork balls and fish cakes to this dish. Now, she skips the liver and still keeps the pork balls and fish cakes. Not a fan of pork balls, then go for shredded chicken. Pork balls here is home made mince and lightly salted to give it taste. And to give it kick, chop some red chillies to dip with soy sauce or bird's eye chilli for the sting.

We don't eat this when we are sick but any time when we feel like it and of course if you are bloated form eating out often, try this dish. Minus the liver of course for me. :)

Home Cooked Food: Yong Tau Foo

Ah... another "filler" post of home cooked food. Sorry guys, not much food posting of late. I am quite lazy to take my camera out these days as my work lap top weighs a tonne ( 2.25 kg i measured ) and with so many things to carry i find that it is ... a virtual impossibility to carry my lap top, my camera and my handbag. By the year end, the lap top is probably gonna gain me some muscles.... T_T.  Looking back at my old pics taken i found some on Yong Tau Foo one of my favorite local dishes in Malaysia. And it's made by ... jeng jeng ... my mom. UNFORTUNATELY... this is one dish i have not picked up on how to cook. And it is not easy to make as your key ingredient is actually good fish.

Mom picked up this recipe from her late mother and her old neighbor in Lahat Lane ( Perak ). And i must say, fussy me is very particular about fish ball or yong tau foo. Despite this being my favorite dish, i am quite selective on which stall i pick to eat this as the quality of the y.t.f must be up to my standard. Too bouncy, i don't like, too soft i don't like. Too er commercialized - like those that come out of the pack, please keep away from me. Next year, my blog title shall be Neko Hime Blogs - Eating blog of a fussy cat. And true to a nature of a cat, i am picky. And i think i inherit my fussy-ness from my mom - who is queen fussy when it comes to food. *wink*

Anyhoo.... this happens to be my favorite dish mom cooks. And the fish used - tenggiri ( in BM ) or Kau Yue ( cantonese ) so when i asked her ... what's it called in English?? She says Mackerel... I was like EH? Really? I thought mackerel's were small. So i googled Mackerel and found some pics... Hmm does look like the fish she gets. But i think it's the King Mackerel that is closest to the description. 

My mom makes the fishballs and stuffings on her own, the only thing store bought is the tau foo and fuu-pei ( beancurd skin ) and ... the fish of course. The preparation of the dish takes about 3-4 hours. It starts with preparing the fish for fish mince. When choosing a tenggiri, my mom female fishes are better ( ?? how to tell ah ) and if the fish meat sticks to your knife, it is too oily already for making fishball ( you are gonna get softish fish ball in this case ). The meat is chopped till fine. We don't add additional type of meat or other fish meat just tenggiri on it's own. Then she stuffs it in the tau foo, beancurd skin and aubergines. And when American Idol is not on, you get it with bitter-gourd. After stuffing and shaping the fish balls, it's shallow fried in a pan. This process itself takes about 2 hours as you don't want it TOO brown or too pale.

Mom tops off her YTF with a fermented bean paste sauce, not the usual soup type. We normally eat this with rice so the bean paste gives it an additional flavor. Naturally chilli sauce is a must for this dish to give it an extra kick! No recipe this time, er .. this one no recipe one, it's in my mom's brains!

Homecooked Meals- Four Angled Beans with Belacan.

Ah ...  i am lazy to write a long post.....  ( my mentalist season 2 is calling me.... )  So i thought i will do a home cooked meal post. Sometimes i look at the pictures i have in my camera, i am so lazzzzzzzzzzzzzy to download it :P  ... that is why i am not so a successful blogger. Hampered by laziness and totally and completely distracted. 

I chose a rather green recipe to talk about today which is Four Angled Beans. You must be wondering what so special about it, actually no but this dish reminds me of my childhood in Damansara Utama, where the garden as bigger, the neighbours were more into plants then renovating the house to look like a mini Southfork ( think Dallas) and since there was no PS2, internet or anime during that time, i was more interested in what grows in the garden. Now? I am more fond of the fungi that is growing wildly under my orchid shade :D Ok, i do have some cactus which are quite happy on my plant ledge. 

As a kid, my parents tend to grow a lot more vegetables than they do now. Now they grow what i called fail looking custard apple from Australia, failed Rose plant from Italy, failed Lavender from Australia! ( ... don't ask how they got it ) and skinny guava but veggies are not part of their to grow list as it requires a lot more TLC. But as a kid, they grew chilli, four angled beans, cucumbers ( yes we had a mini green house in the garden ), sweet potatoes and ubi kayu as well.  I like the four angled beans as it was a climbing plant and you just pop it near a fence and it will wind itself up the fence.  When it was time for harvesting, we'd be eating this for 2 weeks or so.... T_T....  But ... till this day now, i think if i were to buy a house, i'd prefer one with a garden so that i can tinker around growing things next time.


Anyway fresh four angled beans are lovely. Our supplier now is the local grocer, 5 minutes away.  Mom cooks four angled beans normally with dried shrimps chopped finely, fresh chillies and onion along with some belacan. The smell is unbeliveable. And i could just eat this alone with white rice.  And it's quite simple to make you can substitute this with other veggies like kangkong. 

Ok, there ... mom should be pleased today, i have posted some home cooking for her today :D. I have started calling these photo tags as Okasan no Daidokoro ( meaning mom's kitchen ) And she wants her char siew post next.

Homecooked Meals - Chinese Beef Stew

More of the homecooked meals series coming up. Today's dish of the day, Chinese Beef Stew. I love beef. My family cannot say no to beef. We like in any form, balls, rendang, curry, stew, pies and etc. In fact my parents have taken their beef love to a new level which is like stomach, the tendons etc etc. My brother and i keep it to just the meat bits :). But we do love sup ekor :) Especially the ones in Bandung.

I find it odd that people in Hong Kong which is a predominantly Buddhist country eats beef wherelse people in malaysia don't! I have not figured out why yet but one day must go and ask my Aunty who is more knowledgeable in such matters.

Normally we fry the beef with veggies or sometimes make rendang ( which is rare now - due to cholestrol reasons ) but mom makes up for it by making Chinese Beef Stew. It reminds me of the one that Nam Heong Chicken rice used to serve up in the old Damansara Utama branch.

This recipe by the way, tastes good only with beef. I don't think the pork and chicken versions work well.

 Ingredients:
* 12 tahils of beef
* 1 tbl spoon of soya sauce
* 1/2 tsp ng heong fun, salt and pepper
* 1/4 cup cooking oil
* 2 cloves
* 2 petals of bunga lawang
* 1 inch cinnamon stick
* 2 cups hot water
* 1 carrot
* 1 potato ( preference to omit )
* A dash of chinese wine
* 1 daikon
* 1 celery - this adds to the distinctive smell the dish gets.

Cut the beef and season with the soya sauce, ng heong fun, salt and pepper. Heat the oil and lightly brown the meat, don't over cook it too much! At the remaining ingredients and bring it to a boil . Reduce the heat and then simmer till both meat and veggies are cook! This roughly takes about 1 1/2 hours. The smell is amazing. If there is "scratch a blog" for smell, it would definitely be beneficial.

Makes good pot luck dish and can be put in the freezer for future use! It's also a good one pot dish if you are not into cooking other things. Has meat and veggies. Ok. I am hungry now. Toodles.

Lemongrass Prawns

 

Before i knew a whiff of lemongrass, i would have thought the name of this dish is nothing extraordinary. But now that i am familiar with the foodie goddess, i chuckle every time my mother cooks this dish called Lemongrass Prawns. I'd be amuse that i have a dish named after my food blog! Which makes me think i should have chosen my blog name more carefully!!

As mentioned before i am starting a series on Home cooked food because ( aiya not because i am on a budget or anything ) but i like to feature some of the things people eat differently at home. I am also trying to feature more unique stuff my mom makes. Also, besides all the eating out, nothing beats home cooking especially in terms of health. It's always less salty, less fatty and probably done with a whole lot of TLC to make it tasty. I share my mother's love of cooking - ( however, i doubt i want to cook in the same kitchen as her /:) .... *grin* ) and can't wait to have my own kitchen to cook.

My aunties are less than pleased i want to photograph their food because none of them can cook as good as my mom! ( i am so biased here ) And my mom never fails to get impressed when she looks at her food pictures on my pc.  Just the other day, i took a picture of  her beef stew and while i was adjusting the exposure and the brightness to perk the pics up, she was giving me her "backseat" directions of why the other picture i took must should be the one on the blog. Her only reason was the first picture.. did not show case the carrots in her dish. -__________- ...  Ah....... next she will ask for royalties from my foodbuzz clicks. 

Ok back to the dish. Lemongrass prawns is something inherited from my maternal grandmother. She, like my mom was an excellent cook and had to cook for a family of 30+  along time ago ( 4 families stayed in the same house - my mother did not have 30+ siblings lah ) and i think it feels like cooking for chap fan shop if there are 30+ people. According to my mom, the menu is different every day and nothing is repeated in the week.  So imagine the creativity you need to feed 30+ people ( of varied tastes )

Ingredients:
- Need fresh prawns of course, cleaned and deveined ( i can't stand it when prawns are not devein prawns - who wants to see poo in their food!! )
- Fresh chilli.
- Sticks of lemongrass
- Shallots
- Salt to taste

For the fresh ingredients, pound them till paste like. Heat up wok with oil and then fry paste in it. Once fragrant, add the prawns to the paste. Prawns cook pretty fast so once they are not translucent take it out. And serve with white rice.

This dish is incredibly easy to make and especially if you have potluck situations. My paternal grandma got the recipe off my mom and used to make it potluck post bible study. Goes well with rice and also even better as a dish for nasi lemak.

Tom Yam @ Mom's Kitchen

I was pretty desperate for food photos for the past week or so ... otherwise i will not live up to the title of food blogger. In fact, i was so desperate - that i bugged my mom to cook some thing different - LOL. Her response was "home cooked food also want to take pics??" ..

Anyway, it was good she was cooking @ home because the last week or so i was feeling pretty crooked. Bones aching, mild sore throat, i think i was about to come down with something. Luckily she made tom yam at home. Lucky you say? Actually, whenever i feel i need a pick me up with the flu, I normally eat really spicy stuff. Chillies are good for you with a lot of vitamin C and after each "eating" session ( provided you don't head for the loo first ), you sweat it out. Besides tom yam, i eat kimchi noodles, curry, asam laksa - whatever that is spicy and i will down it. Excluding Jalapeno and Habenero - i said i want to sweat it out not kill myself.

She decided for Tom Yam as she was craving for some as well.  Tom Yam was pretty popular in the 80s as a noodle dish. You could find most hawker stalls selling this noodle dish with bee hoon and mee along with a large prawn and other condiments - these days it's pretty rare and centered mostly in Thai shops.

I like my mom's version with the help of bottled tom yam paste.  Base is made of chicken stock to give it even more flavor to the soup. Depending on how hot you want your tom yam, 1 teaspoon for nicely tangy and hot but if you want butt-kicking hot, top up with 2-3 teaspoons more.  She normally adds chicken meat, fish cakes and 1/2 an egg to make the dish complete. Our friendly grocer ran out of bean sprouts that day, so it was ... choy sum for tom yam. Mom thought it was a bit weird.

To make the dish smell even nicer, you cannot miss out the serai, kaffir leaves and that other veggie - chinese basil i think that gives it the aroma of tom yam. I must say i was a happy kitty after the meal and sweated it out as I wanted. :) Flu .. Gone!

If you are not keen on the soup version, the tom yam paste can be used in your fried bee hoon. I used to cook it while in Uni  and makes a simple yet tasty dish. 

So if you are feeling a bit blue or cold - remember-  hot chilli food.

Merdeka day celebrations...

This is a short quick post on what we did on merdeka day. My cousins and i, being older, wiser, and a lot more richer than we were as kids (nyek -nyek ) decided to organize a cousin sponsored event for our aunts and uncles. The uncles and aunties are all lazy to organize now, so it is our generation to get something going. Not all of us are fantastic cooks - so we had the store bought variety. *Sheepish*

I woke up early that day as it was a busy day rushing around and guess what i found in my back yard - hiding....under our buckets and old fashion chinese stove... a pretty tortoiseshell mama cat ( she is a stray btw ) and her aka-chans ( babies ). I don't think they are newborn, the kittens look about 3-4 weeks old. Here she is sort of posing for me... ( well no, it is just the angle was perfect as if she is peeking at the camera. This is followed by hissing - when my camera got too close.
Her young uns looks like this, unfortunately i cannot get close enough to flip them and take pictures and neither did i want to remove the bucket that was covering them in case i frightened them. Check out the tiny neko mimi ( ears ) here... unfortunately- there is no one that looks like momma in terms of color. They came out seperately as brown, white and black!

My mom was ok with them there till she found out they were having diarrhea and have to have them removed in case they infected my dogs. :(.

Back to merdeka celebrations. Despite it was a sponsored cousin event, my mom decided to back her world famous cakes. She is pretty good in this area. And for this event she made a simple Chocolate Raisin cake! Yes, from her trusty Australian woman's weekly ( magazine sponsored by yours truly )

It's a pretty weird combination actually when you think of it, but the slightly sourish raisins and sweet chocolate is quite nice. I love cakes with fruits of any kind inside as it gives it a more moist texture. The original recipe had a ganache topping in which we opted not to add for "slimming" reasons. But it tasted just as good without the topping. The cake was a hit in the family gathering later that day.

So much for this post, back end of the week for the continuation of Merdeka festivaties.

Chilli Garlic Crabs and American Idol, don't go well.

Seriously i can't remember if i have blogged this before but... aiya, take it as a new post with my DSLR. ... It's a short post. It's boiling at home and i don't fancy staying in front of the PC to generate more heat to myself. I tell ya, this dish above is my Por Por's original recipe. This was supposed to appear on Thursday's dinner and she even informed me and Lil Bro to come back early for dinner for this BUT when we came back... THERE WERE NO CRABS. I was like what? So we asked where is the crabs.... you know what she says ...? "I was too busy watching American Idol... tomorrow lah" ... my brother and i had the -_-" face. Dad was already immuned to it.

Finally, when the dish appeared on Friday's dinner we were pleased as punch. It's 5 crabs here of flower crab ( far-hai) and must have those with the crab roe. The crab roe is used to make the sauce, cooked with lots of chopped red chilli, garlic and a wee bit of soy sauce to give you the dark color. Stir fry it all together and .. wa-laa a simple dish that warms the bottoms of your tummy. Since my mom is on a low fat diet, she just had 2 claws. Between dad, me and bro we walloped the 5 crabs. *burp*

I remember when we were young, my mom used to cook this for my big bunch of relatives and every one will be just eating crabs. Back then - we did not discover ... cholestrol yet.. :)

And the sauce with crab roe makes excellent dipping for the crab flesh. And with plain white rice. Neko is in crabby heaven already.... *hearts a flutter*... Mom says she takes order again... hehehe.

Puffin' Muffin

Neko's mummy was busy a bakin' during the CNY... Here's a shot of her muffin :) Carrot muffin to be exact. Neko's favorite. Anything to do with carrot, me likes!


I take orders now - lol :)

Leeks are not for the meek

I love CNY because tis' the season where i have a lot of leeks to eat. Though all year round you may find it, i noticed during CNY it is quite in abundance. However, leeks i found is not everyone's favorite veggie. Called Nira in japanese, this veg has a pretty strong flavour and if you are not used to it, to some ( like lil 'bro ) it might be their version of chau tau foo. But put in soups and dishes, they add quite a nice flavor to it. Leeks are also the base of the soup for sukiyaki.

One of my family's traditions is to serve leek with siew yoke or with fish! I like the siew yoke version hands down. The basis of the dish is simple:

* Some leeks - young un's are the best
* Fresh taufu - local taufo to be exact - it tastes kinda weird with Japanese egg tofu, i prefer mine with local taufu.
* Some bean paste.
* Fresh red chilli cut into thin slices.
* Definitely- siew yoke is required

Stir fry together and add the red chilli in the end. However, in this case- we ran out of fresh chillies so we have to make do. So this new year, leek up! Make some siew yoke and taufoo for CNY reunion dinner - in case you are tired of the roast duck, roast chicken etc etc. :P

Christmas @ the Kitteh's house

I have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. And looking @ it, i have never been really a very thankful cat. Mm... Probably nature of my work makes me a demanding cat but this year,

* I took Christmas eve off with my parents. :) Whom by the way seemed pleased to spend it with me. Of course - shopping at Daiso with mom helps. RM5 FOR EVERYTHING! How can you not be happy. Of course, patience is also parents who put up with a daughter who is always on the phone even though she is On Leave .. to answer work calls.
* I am healthier & much happier than last year :)
* It's nice to have family around - even though they talk louder than you. When you are 2 feet away from them.
* A relatively quite year with little emotional turmoil is good. *winks*

Well, this is my Christmas eve & Christmas Dinner post. Heck, where's my Winter Solstice post?

Christmas eve, we did a lunch out instead - to avoid the crazy rush of what is known as - School Holidays. Dad was raving about the Ikea Salmon for Christmas and ok, since he could walk better than he did over the weekend, we decided to indulge him. I must say i do like ikea food. Yes, the meatballs are my fav despite protests from my dad it reeks of milk smell.


So we trooped there as early as 11 and spent about an hour at Daiso ( all hail RM5 shops!) Ah.. heaven and we dutifully meet at the ikea cafeteria. And the crowd came. Don't get me wrong but i practically hate school holidays. I feel as if i could suffocate when school hols appear. The throngs of people and kids are just a bit too overwhelming for me. Luckily we got in row, i was busy snapping pics of my daiso purchases while the rest got food!
This is the salmon they were raving about. Not bad actually. Salmon is my favorite fish as it is quite easy to eat with no bones and feels firm in terms of meat texture. And i think i have seen this dish done up by Tina Nodstrom of the AFC fame. Anyway this is not something Ikea will serve up daily, it is only for christmas with lots of grilled vegetables.

Basically it's a grilled salmon topped up with a sauce that is quite simply amazing. I detected fresh tomato, with dried tomato as well. Some mustard seeds ( like the ones used in dijon mustard ) onions and other flavors in which i can't pint point. I noticed i developed a bad habit of tasting a bit of something and then sniffing it like a cat, along with a flick of the tongue to try and decipher the make up of something. Not to mention the weird stares people give you sometimes as a result of this.

Chicken Breassttssssssssssssss...

Dinner on Christmas night was special. Mom made her Lemon Roasted chicken with herbs. Actually her brandy roast chicken is to die for, but dad wanted a whole chook instead of drumsticks ( Neko wants chicken breasssstsssss -ie:gollum)... that day complete with Roasted Potatoes with herbs and fresh corn. Turkey does not go well with a small family however today's chook was literally quite large as well. You can say i was stuffed on boxing day and the day after as well... *burp*That's the chook roastin' in the oven with the 'taters.

One thing i noticed, if you have a rotisserie, you can roast it whole, cooks more evenly but if you don't, it is better to butterfly the chicken. In the end you have to cut it up anyway rather than you have reddy bits in the chook.

Dad carving the chook. Hmm, i am not so good at this area.

Our style of 'taters with pre cooked potatoes tossed with garlic, olive oil and rosemary leaves. Taters and Rosemary seems very nice. Put it in the oven to bake for about 15-30 mins ( slow bake )

End result you get something like this. See the red bits? i had to pop it back to the microwave for a while. I can eat raw fish and slightly raw beef but raw chook is not my cup of tea. Despite the microwave bit the chicken was tender still. Oh by the way, the corn was yummy and sweet.

So, that was the feast at the Kitteh's house. Well we had very full cats that day. I think i was turning a bit green the next day where i saw food. Need detoxing already. Hope all of you all had a great christmas as well. :)

Me lup Mee

I must admit i am a lazy blogger sometimes. :) sometimes it is not that i don't have inspiration but i am lazy to turn on the computer. In my line of work, every day when you look at this square box the whole day, you don't want to look @ it further. When i come back i normally want to look at the other dumb box which is the TV. :) Chasing Hong Kong dramas can be addictive at times.

Anyway, eating out these days are some what lessen due to late work nights and more healthy eating ( eating at home ). However, once in a while my mom does make something nice and special for weekends. Her mee dishes are quite nice. Now, she used to make Cantonese Wat Tan alot last time. Ying Yong version with either yee mee or kuay teow. However, since her cholestrol war, she looks for alternative noodles that has not so much fat or too oil fried.

The wet market in Taman Tun is one place you can find a noodle shop that sells noodle as such. Presenting - Yee Meen that is not fried :) And it looks like the above. All roundish and blockish. I am not sure how they do it but it is definitely not fried. All you need to do is put it in hot water for a while and then it softens and you are ready to cook it with your wat-tan soup or sauce.

And the end result - looks like this :) simple wat tan. Enough for 4 hungry persons. Add some sotong, chicken, lots of veggies in my case and prawns of course. Note the sauce requires a base of chicken stock and just add egg and corn flour, soy sauce to thicken and season and - walah - wat tan.

Who says eating healthy has no taste at time? :) I don't think so.

Home made kon loh meen

My mother gets alot of air time on my blog... :) she's asking for her cut in nuffnang ads money- lol. Sometimes when i run out of things to write ( there are times i am lazy to go out and eat ) she becomes a good source of food pictures. Many years back when i was younger mom used to make a wide array of food. She now cuts it down a bit due to health reasons but once in a while she makes us things that were not so healthy for us! However, she is still a good cook and i look forward to home cook meals alot. ( Besides the fact it is also cheaper *giggle* )

Sometimes on saturday- she makes alot of noodle dishes. Noodles are her specialities. Her mom, my ah por-por makes good noodles as well and the legacy is handed down. Yeah, at her level - it stopped at mine. One day she decided to make dry noodles - i am not sure what this really called but she just say it is wantan noodles with pork sauce.

Noodles are not self made here but purchased at Taman Tun wet market. To make delicious noodles, you need good quality noodles and methods of cooking does play a part here. And the methods of cooking is different from Maggi mee style. Cooking chinese noodles require dipping into hot water followed by cold water than back into hot again. Not really sure why but it makes the texture of the noodles better. Too long in hot water makes it too soft so the dip in cold water makes it firmer again. Correct? Any see fu who knows this?


There are many ways to create the accompaniments to the noodles. Sometimes she will cook her own char siew to add to this. One of her more favourite style is pork/chicken meat minced with chinese mushrooms. You need to fry all the ingredients first then thicken the sauce with dark soy sauce, light soy sauce a bit of sugar and some oyster sauce. Pour it on the noodles to serve. The sauce tastes pretty well with bihun or kuay teow. I definitely like mine with pork than chicken.

Anyway the simplest meals sometimes are the best. I wonder if mom wants to set up a restaurant ... hmm......

Home made pork chop :) neko mama lups neko

I havent been eating out much recently as work has gotten me into a pretzel shape. Not very pretty one btw. It was pretty bad last week where we had to work saturday and sunday to rectify an issue. Mental note readers -DO NOT submit your child to work in the IT industry. It equals - LONG HOURS. VERY LONG HOURS, if they insist, tell them about the long long hours. And.... too sweet a starbucks will drive you 'nanas.

Anyway, after eating about 2-3 times mac d in a day, i wanted to stop thinking of mac d and found in my lap top pictures of my mom's pork chop. Mc D fans- sorry. i just don't like fast food, yucky, yucky and yucky. Except the ice-cream. That's all.

Her pork chop is a real pick me up. Made up of lean meat and very hainanese. She is not hainanese by the way but something her mom thought her. And her mom learnt it from her hainanese neighbour. Who owns a ... restaurant. Well, we normally serve it a few ways in my house 1) with bread, western style along with peas and potatoes the lot. 2) As a dish, whip up a sauce, slice the pork thinly, fry some thinly slice potato and you can eat it with rice. 3) Sometimes mom makes a sandwhich for me with this.

Basic ingredients
* Pork, she uses yoke ngan ( i think for this ), use the back part of the knife to tenderize the meat ( good stress reliver )
* Soy sauce
* Mustard
* Sugar
* Corn flour.

Mix the ingredients and let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so. The mix will absorb better sitting in the fridge. Well, now is the fry fry bit. Take some corn flour, coat your pieces of meat and slow fry it in oil. Now mom is ANTI fat. So frying is a slow process for her. Just so we don't get cholestrol. Fry until it becomes nice and golden brown. Like below. The smell of mustard, mix with soy and sugar actually is quite an amazing thing.
For a family of 4 cats, we normally eat about this much pork, yes it is a lot of pork. Pork and away .......... if i am late for dinner ( which is normal ) mom normally saves a few pieces for me and choice pieces as well - hah! dad - no steal my pork.

Mom promises this for dinner this weekend :) to cheer me up ( the walking around in the house looking like a kiong si certainly helps drive the hint across)... neko mama lups neko! :)

Oh, btw, this works for chooks as well and i tried it on my own when i was living overseas. Darn easy to make and extremely tasty. You can make extra, save it in the fridge and defrost for later meals.

Home made Yam Cake

Saturday lunches are a big thing in my family. Where others prefer to keep it light or eat out, my family usually lunches in. This the only day where ( besides sunday ) get to eat as family for lunch. Other days we are working and it's just dad and mom alone. It is also becomes mom thinks we need a dose of a home cooking every weekend to ensure all the eating out toxins are cleared up. :P

So naturally our saturday lunches mean a lot of work to mom. She will put all her efforts in making saturday lunches something special. Sometimes it is her fishball noodle, sometimes it's Ipoh Hor fun or even Mee Siam.

However, this saturday is her specialty of Yam Cake. For lunch you may think? But in our family Yam cakes are not for tea but as main meal itself.

Squashing and Mashing in action - that's mom.

She buys her yam from the local grocer and one thing i noted with this dish- there is a lot of pounding,squashing, steaming and mashing involved. Normally she kicks me out of the kitchen because i am what they say... " the one that makes more mess than helping" hehehehehe. Ok-lah, i am dishwasher most of the time.. But she doesn't mind the photo taking cos she seems to think she is a cooking celebrity! ( Too much Asian Food Channel ) LOL...

The ingredients include pork, lots of fried onions, yam, he-be(?) all mixed up and steamed in a big steamer. No pictures of steaming in action... was doing something else at that time... And .... what do you get?

The end product

To me, the key ingredient besides the yam, is the fried onions that gives this dish the added flavor and aroma. Aahhhhhhhhhhh if blogs can have scratch and sniff ...


This is best eaten with some home made chilli sauce. In my case, drowning in home made chilli sauce. I normally take about 6 pieces of this before declaring tank is full. Leftovers can be lightly pan fried to give that extra crunchiness.

I wonder whether i can request for Hor Fun next week? (^_^)V

Loh Chee Yoke- Braised Pork with Egg Mom's style

Mom was in one of her good moods - so she made Loh Chee Yoke- braised pork. I dont know which style is hers but she claims it is our Cantonese style dishes but it is damn tasty! Am biased ya know...

I believe the ingredients are garlic, dark sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and she puts ungrounded pepper in it, to get rid of any porky smell and make it smells ravishing. Mom also adds egg ( one whole egg ) during the cooking process and you get a nice aroma from it too.

The Loh Chee Yoke- is good with rice and I like it with lots, lots of sauce on the rice and if preferable the whole egg :) I only got 1/2 last night. My family are egg fanatics. Eggs of any form will be eaten with great pleasure.

My pictures were not up to par today- hand was shaky and my dad was actually making his usual funny comments so my concerntration got lost some where. :)
Wah look at the egg? Dripping with sauce... and the pork- with right amounts of fat and meat. Mom removes the skin cos she says it's "gross" hehehehe. Neko normally does not take fat but in this case it is an exception. Point to note- i also dont eat this dish when it is cooked by other people. Only mom's! The neko was happy last night :) U-r-e-s-h-i-i

Home made Chilli Crabs and more of Russell

Since everyone is finally home @ the same time, Mom decided crabs was a good thing to cook yesterday. She has always been very good at cooking crabs, so basically this dish her in her "lar sau" dishes. She got the recipe from Chef Wan it's called Ketam Masak Manis? Man, i think the chilli's now are super hot. My lips felt like those in the Chinese movies, fat and red after eating. It was tasty but only too hot. The sauce goes well with the rice and if there were mantou, it is even better...
Here are the crabs, in the wok - all bubbling.... er reminds me of that shakespeare play- where the witches stand around the cauldron stirring their brew. Mom was standing behind me going "FAI TEET LAH".. eh... good photography is not necessarily fast leh.

Crabs! All cooked and ready... check out the claws. We only got 2 crabs, cos mom doesnt eat too much seafood. Consider it high cholestrol. I had 1 claw and two of the body sections :P. Heck care, eat first talk later...... gym on saturday.
Ah! Here is Russell, sleeping. You know half his body is on the top part of the floor, the other 1/2 at the bottom of the ledge. He has a funny way of sleeping. The howling has stopped and he has taken to barking. Yes, barking. At all hours of the day. Sigh. But he's quite cute and is a ball of hyperactivity. Comet is not able to match his youthful enthusiasm. :P Otherwise why is comet call fat-boy leh....... Fat boy is not happy he is being called Fat boy.

Right after dinner, i knew mom was dying to ask me that question- what happen to me and Fren? Kinda expected her to ask that but only earlier. Sigh. Told her we had a huge fight and have not been speaking since. I truly miss Fren sometimes but then when both of us do not see eye to eye on our issues and are not able to talk about it, sometimes just letting it cool off is better before we say even more hurtful things(It's 3 weeks now- i have also taking to avoiding him when i see him around my workplace, oh childish me). I dont know if he sees this, but guess he is too pre-occupied with his own issues to consider other things. I should have known i will encounter this when we started this... sigh. Sometimes, you know, when you read all those books, see all those movie, you want to be a bigger person than that. But then i realise, that's all crap. I am still human, i need to be human and i cant be those people.

I have one thing to say about you men out there, if you think you are doing something and someone else can understand, think again. What goes on in your head, does not necessary mean others will understand your warped logic. Check with others first ok? Saves you a lot of heartache and hurt.

P/S: Banks are spamming me with SMSes. Why ah?

Home Made Mee Siam

This is not a restaurant review but just some pictures of my mom's home made mee siam. Mom made this last saturday so i was running around in the kitchen trying to get some shots. Till i became a pain in the ***.

Mee Siam is a local dish. It does not come from thailand contrary to the name. It is basically made of rice noodles, with freshly cut chilly, onions, garlic. You need to add tau-kwa and bean sprouts as well as chives to it. And the best bit is the prawns that come with this dish. Later it is garnished with either hard boil egg or omelette in strips form. I can't remember where it originates from but it was very popular during the time when i was child. And it is such a nostalgic food :). Reminds me of the time when my cousins and I went to each other's houses for BBQ, this is definitely a dish on the menu. Anyway- dont expect a write up on the way to cook this. I just eat this.

This is mom's speciality- actually her noodles are the best :).
That's a pic of the tau kwa frying. Mom prepares all the add ons to the dish first.

Naturally bee hoon has to be soaked. Picture of the final product -color is off in this shot.

Tada!! the final product with egg strips as well as lime to squeeze on top of the noodles. It gives it an extra oomph! Thanks mom- totemo oiishikatta desu.!