Simple and Nice Tomato Chutney Recipe

I love chutney. It really whet my appetite and made me eat more rice! There are some tomatoes that have been sitting in my fridge far too long and I used them to make this vegetarian chutney. I just used all the basic ingredients that I have in stock and the end result turned out quite good. Here is my simple tomato chutney recipe.

Ingredients

Tomato, 3 pcs

Garlic, 3 cloves, cut into slices

Shallots, 3 pcs, cut into slices

Curry powder, 3 table spoons, add water to make a paste

Mixed Halba, 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves, from 3 stalks

Salt to taste

Vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons

Heat up wok and add in the vegetable oil. Put in the shallots and garlic. Saute them for a short while and add in the curry paste, curry leaves and mix halba. Lower down the heat and stir the mixture regularly to avoid burning it. Add tomatoes and stir until they break into small pieces. Add a little water and let it boil until all the tomatoes turned soft. Lastly, add in the salt. Serve with steamed rice while still hot.

Fried Four Angle Beans (Kacang Botol) with Eggs Recipe

Four angle beans are normally fried with sambal (fermented shrimp paste chilly) or chilly paste but it also taste good with eggs. They also taste good if eaten as ulam (Malaysian Salad) with sambal belacan. Thinking of sambal belachan would make me drool! LOL. I cut the four angle beans into medium size slices so that it would blend well with the eggs. This is a very simple dish to prepare.

Ingredients
Four angle beans(kacang botol, sei ling toa), 5 pcs, cut into thin slices
Eggs, 1 pc Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely
Light soya sauce, 1 teaspoon
Pepper, a dash
Vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Saute the garlic until fragrant. Add eggs and scrambled it using the spatula. Put in the light soya sauce, pepper and salt to taste. Throw in the four angle beans. Fried for a short while. Serve with steamed rice while still hot.

Deep Fried Chicken Wing with Honey and Butter Recipe

I marinated some Chicken wings overnight and fried them the very next day for dinner. Unfortunately, I only managed to snap the photo for one piece because my kids ate most of it before I could do so. In order to make the chicken wing tastier, you just have to balance the aroma, sweetness and saltiness of it. I added the honey after frying the chicken to that it will not get burned easily while in the hot oil.

Ingredients
Chicken Wings, 10 pcs
Light Soya Sauce, 5 tablespoons
Dark soya sauce, 1/2 teaspoon
Five Spice powder, 1 teaspoon
Black Vinegar, 1 tablespoon
Tomato sauce, 2 tablespoon
Ground pepper, 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Corn flour, 1 tablspoon
Honey, enough to coat the chicken wings
Butter, enough to coat the chicken wings
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Marinade the chicken wings with light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, five spice powder, black vinegar, tomato sauce, ground pepper, salt and corn flour. Leave it aside for 1 hour or overnight in the fridge. Deep fry the chicken wings until they turned golden brown. Mix butter with honey with a little hot water. Coat the hot chicken wings with butter and honey mixture. Serve while still hot.

Penang Mee Goreng Mamak at Asia Cafe, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya

I went back to Asia Café Kota Damansara to try out the Penang Mee Goreng (fried noodles) Mamak which I heard was the same as the famous one near Weld Quay in Penang. Well, it is sure different from the one that we usually get in KL. The fried prawn fritters that accompanied the reddish mee goreng mamak was rather tasty compared to the bland KL ones. I guess they also added in a little grounded peanut which gave the noodles extra flavours. Overall it is quite tasty!

Map to Asia Cafe Kota Damansara

Genting Strawberry Leisure Park

Genting Leisure Strawberry Park is located near the roundabout to the Genting Cable Car station. This is where I bought the Monkey Head Mushroom to cook Monkey Head Mushroom Chick Kut Teh. Visitors to this stawberry farm can pick their own strawberry and pay according to the weight at the exit counter. Kids would love this type of activities and experience. Once you entered the main gate, you will have to walk through the long maze around the farm till the exit where there are stalls selling various types of curious. I love the mushroom section. There are many types of mushroom planted here; lingzhi, oyster mushroom......and ahhhhh....of course my favourite, the Monkey Head Mushroom! The monkey head mushroom that I bought to cook Chick Kut Teh! Good for steamboat too!

Map to Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm

Monkey Head (Kepala Monyet) Mushroom Chick Kut Teh Recipe

Heh heh heh, animal rights activist would have thought that I am cooking the real 'monkey head' in bak kut teh (Chinese herbal soup)! I have been looking for monkey head mushroom quite sometime already and managed to find it at Genting Strawberry Leisure Park last week. I was so excited that I cooked Chick Kut Teh with it the very next day. Monkey head mushroom (Hericium erinaceus, hóu tóu gū, 猴头菇, yamabushitake) has many medicinal properties. It has antioxidant compund, regulate blood sugar level and anti dementia properties. Apart from all these, it is also very tasty! LOL!

Ingredients
Chicken, 1/2 bird, cut onto large chunks
A1 Bak Kut Teh herbs, or herbs from local Chinese Medicine shop, 1 packet
Kei Chi, 1/4 cup
Garlic, 1 bulb
Monkey Head Mushroom, 1 packet Salt to taste
Vegetable (eg Sawi, lettuce...), cut onto 1 inch length
Yau char kwai (chinese crullers), 2 pcs, cut into bite size
Light Soya Sauce, 3 tablespoons
Dark soya sauce, 1/2 teaspoon

Pour the desired amount of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add in the bak kut teh herbs, kei chi, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, chicken and garlic. Boil for around 45 minutes. Add salt to taste. Put in the monkey head mushroom and boil for around 5 minutes. Then put in the vegetable and boil for another 1 minute. Put the soup in a bowl and garnish with parsley. The soup is best eaten with rice and yau char kwai(Chinese Crullers).

This is how monkey head mushroom looks like!

Simple Shortcut Rendang Daging (Dry Curry Beef) Recipe

Cooking beef rendang is really easy except the part where you have to cook the meat until it turned soft and keep on stirring the rendang so that it will not get burned. However, I have tried this shortcut simple method and the end result is the same as the conventional way of cooking it.

Ingredients
Beef chunk, 500 gms
Potato, 2 pcs, cut into four and boiled until soft
Adabi Premix rendang curry powder, 1 packet mixed with water to make a paste
Shallots, 5 pcs
Serai (lemongrass), 2 stalks
Daun Kunyit (optional), 1 pc
Kaffir lime leaves (limau purut), 5 pcs, cut into thin strips
Dark soya sauce, 1/2 teaspoon
Kerisik (toasted grated coconut), 5 tablespoons
Tamarind juice, 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Vegetable oil

Put shallots, serai and daun kunyit in a blender. Blend until they are fine. Pour some vegetable oil in wok and saute the blended ingredients until fragrant. Add in the rendang paste. Stir fry for a short while. Add in the beef, kaffir lime leaves and kerisik. Pour in the tamarind juice and dark soya sauce. Add a little water and put the rendang into a crock pot (slow cooker). Cook it overnight until the beef is soft. Pour the rendang into a wok, add salt and sugar to taste. Stir fry until the rendang is a little dry. Add in the cooked potatoes. Serve with nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) or with plain rice.

Aluminium Wrapped Lor Ngap Recipe (Braised Duck)

It has been quite a while since I last cooked a duck dish. My wife bought half a duck from the wet market and I marinated it overnight with spices and dark soya sauce. I love the taste of lor ngap (braised spiced duck) cooked till very soft. Marinating the duck overnight makes the flavours sink deep into the duck meat. This Braised Spiced Duck tasted very good with a bowl of hot steamed rice or porridge.

Ingredients
Duck, 1/2 bird
Five spice powder, 1 teaspoon
Dark Soya sauce, 1 teaspoon
Light Soya sauce, 2 tablespoon
Dried Mandaring Orange Peel, 1 pc (optional or you can just use plum sauce)
Cinnamon stick, 1 pc
Star anise, 2 pcs
Corn flour, 3 teaspoons
Salt to taste Garlic, 1 bulb

Marinade the duck with all the ingredients overnight. Wrap the duck in aluminium foil tightly and steam over high heat for 1 hour or a little more if you want the meat to be softer. Garnish with parsley and serve while still hot.

Peas and Pods Restaurant & Cafe, Dataran Prima, Petaling Jaya

I have been having my meals in Peas and Pods ever since they started operating in Dataran Prima 10 years ago. Peas and Pods serve a large variety of reasonably priced and tasty food. The place is always packed during breakfast and lunch time. They are also very imaginative in coming out with new type of flavours for their dishes. Look out for their daily specials during lunch time. Mr Gooi who is the boss is a very friendly person. No wonder his restaurant is very popular among the office workers around this area. They have a good selection of nice dishes for economy rice during lunch. Many patrons would 'tar pau' (take away) the chap fan (economy rice with dishes) back to their office to eat as well. You can also phone in and order your food if your office is around that area. It will be delivered to you! It is common to see Muslims dining here as well. I ordered one of the daily special, fried mee! Nice and tasty with the right noodle texture!

Some of the dishes for chap fan, sesame chicken and buttered.....errr, need to check what it is!LOL!

A good selection of dishes available during lunch time!

My chap fan (economy rice).

Map and Address for Peas and Pods Restaurant & Cafe No 7-1, Block D7, Jalan PJU 1/39, Dataran Prima, 47301, Petaling Jaya Tel : 03 78806296

Opening for Breakfast and Lunch only, Monday to Saturday.

Top Kitchen Penang Cuisine, Manjalara Kepong - Next to New Tesco Kepong Village Mall

I love Penang Tuapan aka Wat Tan Hor (Braised fried flat noodles) and would be on the lookout for it all the time. KL type wat tan hor doesn't go down well with me. I still prefer Penang style tuapan (wide flat noodles), so I was quite happy to chance upon Top Kitchen restaurant which is located next to the new Tesco Kepong Village Mall. Many restaurants moved over to this location once there were news that Tesco construction was about to complete. This once quiet place is now teaming with diners during peak hours!

I found out from the lady boss that she is from Raja Uda Butterworth.......and her brother has a very popular restaurant back home, selling Tuapan. Raja Uda is famous for reasonably priced and tasty food. The total cost for 3 plates of noodles and rice plus drinks came out to be RM17. A good price for such a comfortable dining environment.

This is my tuapan, Penang Style, just the way I like it!

As usual, my son would go for Penang Hokkien Mee (Prawn noodles, har mien) which is very flavourful.

My daughter wanted fired rice, so I ordered egg wrap fried rice for her. The fried rice is very tasty! I recomend this dish!

After a nice lunch of Penang food at Top Kitchen Penang Cuisine, we bought back some nice chocolate and cheese from the counter inside the shop (RM11.10 for 3 pcs). Very creamy and nice!

Map and Address to Top Kitchen, Penang Cuisine, Manjalara, Kuala Lumpur

No 21, Jalan 9/62A, Bandar Manjalara, Kepong, 52100 Kuala Lumpur

Bananaz Bought me a bowl of Curry Mee at Restaurant Ming Wai

The text message read "We go for lunch at Chinese Kopitiam Ming Wai, next to Eon". I reached Ming Wai first and texted Bananazஇ He was on the way. Then Bananaz, looking rather rugged in a purple T'shirt walked in with a pretty lady. It has been a long time since we last meet up to chit chat! Old friends lah......"Lau Peng Yew"! ha ha ha Then Bananaz bought me this nice bowl of curry mee (noddles) with tender and juicy chicken meat in it! Nice! After the spicy meal, we continued to talking away.

Want to know how Bananaz looked like?.......................................... Opps Sorry.....................mana the head? LOL!

Bananaz in purple shirt doing the peace sign. Notice the large platinum ring in his finger?

Asia Cafe Kota Damansara (24 Hours)- Penang Hawker Stalls

My friend took me to Kota Damansara Asia Cafe for lunch. I seldom pass through this area and didn't realise that Asia Cafe has set up an outlet here. It is located next to Kota Damansara Dataran Sunway and just before Tune Hotel. I opted for Nasi Lemak because I saw the Assam Prawns at the stall. It has been quite a while since I last ate Assam Prawns. I always love assam prawns with nasi lemak. It goes along well with the nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) sambal (chilly). Good!

My friend ordered the Assam Laksa. He told me it is tasty as well. I was too full to go a second serving so I would need to go back there again to try the Assam Laksa.

Then both of us decided to order the Fried Kueh Teow (flat noddles) just to check out the taste. It is a cross of Penang dry type and Southern wet type. However the kueh teow has a good 'wok hei' (wok burn aroma) and is delicious as well!

Map to Asia Cafe, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Bruce Lee My Brother - A Movie Outing with My Daughter

My daughter looking at the movie poster!

My daugther is also a fan of Bruce Lee, just like me. So when the new movie Bruce Lee My Brother started showing in the local cinema, she bugs me to bring her to watch it! Unlike the TV series Bruce Lee The Legend, this movie focus on his early childhood and his life growing up in Hong Kong. So, action fans won't get to see so much of fight scenes and moves. Aarif Rahman is the main actor acting as Bruce Lee and veteran actor Tony Leung Ka Fai. Sweet and sexy Christy Chung acts as Grace, Bruce's mother. This is a very entertaining movie with some light and funny moments. It also covers, Bruce's early exposure to the acting world and film making in Hong Kong. Some of old veterans actors featured are Bo Bo Fung (the famous child actress), Shek Kin (the famous nemesis of Wong Fei Hung) and Lam Ching Por. The cha cha contest part is rather entertaining. Bruce Lee entered the contest with his younger brother and they won. It is so cute to see both of them dancing cha cha cha as partners!

This movies reminds me about some of the events that happened to me during my childhood. LOL!

Dataran Sunway Kota Damansara Food Centre - Seremban BBQ Crab Stall

My son with his toy camera, a blogger in the making! LOL! This food centre is located in the same vicinity as the Crab Seafood Restaurant in Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara. There are many stall here and most of them serve very nice food. I was looking for Chai Lan Stall which serve a variety of reasonable price dishes but didn't realised that they have recently reorganised the location of the stalls. Anyway, I decided to order the dishes from a stall which has a signboard inside it that says "Seremban BBQ Crab". So, my family and I sat down to order the dishes they had to offer. The total price for 4 adults, 1 childand 1 toddler came up to be RM51. All the dishes tasted quite good and the price is very reasonable with generous servings. This tofu dish is very nice and I love the soft flavourful tofu. (RM8)

There aren't much choice when it comes to vegetable dish so we just ordered this Hong Kong Kailan which is very crunchy and well fried. Thumbs up! (RM8)

I was craving for deer meat after visiting Kuala Gandah Deerland, so we ordered deer meat with spring onions and ginger. The meat is very tender and tasty! Yum Yum! (RM15)

Instead of ordering Kulo Yoke as usual, we decided to try out Kulo Fish instead! The fish meat is fresh and this dish actually tasted better than Kulo Yoke. Another thumbs up! (RM16)

Map to Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara Foodcourt

Mee Heong Restaurant, Jalan Pasar, Bentong, Pahang

Pahang is famous for its' Ikan patin (Pangasius Sutchi) which is a type of catfish. These fishes which inhabits the Pahang fresh water rivers have very nice texture and they are free from any mud smell. It have been quite some time since I last ate at Mee Heong which is located at Jalan Pasar, just before the bridge to Kampung Perting and next to a basketball court. You will not be able to see the sign board of this makeshift stall until you enter the restaurant.

We were very hungry after our visit to Kuala Gandah Deerland and Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. Therefore we quickly sat down and started ordering our food. Here is the review and photos of the food we ate. The total bill for 5 adults, 1 child and 2 toddlers came up to be RM79. Nice and fresh sweet potato shoots. However it was a little salty.

This is the steamed Ikan Patin (fish) that we ordered. The flesh has very smooth texture and no mud smell at all. The patin is very fresh and tasty!

Bentong, Pahang is also famous for its' wild boar meat as it is surrounded by the tropical rain forest. We had this nice and savoury dry wild boar meat curry. Yum, yum, very tasty!

As usual, we ordred the tofu dish in claypot so that the kids can flood their rice with the gravy.

Another dish for the kids. The kulo yoke (tomato sauce deep fried meat) serving is rather generous.

Map to Mee Heong Restaurant, Jalan Pasar, Bentong, Pahang