Slow Ageing and Slimming Dessert (1)

Every girls (maybe some guys too) is hoping for a young and youthful skin. Well, you might not feel it when you are at your early twenties but in your late twenties, especially when you are approaching thirty, the desire of sustaining your youthful look is getting stronger each day. Since ancient times, those empress and concubines had been feeding on bird's nest to slow down the ageing. Well, that's for the high-end kind of people to have. For a low-end people like me, we will opt for a low end product but with equivalent effect. That is snow fungus. Some info which I found on the benefits of snow fungus: -

• It contains Iron, Vit C, Calcium, Phosphorus
• Cure constipation as it lubricates colon and stimulate peristalsis (the way your intestines pushes the food down the colon and eventually out from your body)
• Nourish lungs, strengthen respiratory system and therefore, prevent cold
• Improves blood production and circulation that eventually bring a moisture-complexion to the skin.
• Prolong consumption will aid in removing wrinkles, freckles and stress marks
• It also reduces the harmful cholesterol in our body which reduces the risk of getting stroke and high blood pressure
• Prevents cancer

To select a good quality snow fungus, go to the TCM shop, do not choose the extremely snow fungus. Because normally they are bleached. To get a top quality find those with pale yellowish snow fungus. It can be stewed in soup with spare ribs or pork bones. But I prefer to make it into dessert and treat it as my breakfast. Making it is really an easy task. It will only take you 15 mins for the preparation.

What you need

• Snow fungus
• Red dates (good for the production of blood)
• Honey dates
• Wolfberry (good for eyes)
• Longan
• Honey rock sugar

How to cook

• Soak half a palm of the snow fungus for about one to two minutes or till it has soften. Soaking it with water will make the fungus grow bigger. If you dont like the dessert to be too viscous dont use too much. Tear into small pieces or big pieces according to your preference.
• Wash all the ingredients except the honey sugar (add the ingredients amount according to your preference) and put into your slow cooker.
• Put it in low mode and cook for 8 hours (best to do when you are about to go to bed) or put in high mode for about 2-3 hours
• Lastly, add your honey rock sugar and ready to serve.

If you cant finish it during the day after cooking, you can keep in the fridge for about a week. This dessert serves as my breakfast. It really works wonders but of course it has to be a long term eating. Eating for like six months once wont give you much effects.

Happy trying ^_^.

It's a bit too late, but I guess it's ok (I hope...)

I was browsing through the pictures of this year. And how can I not blog about Chinese New Year in my family. I really feel "tak patut" (means shouldn't be that way in Malay). Although a bit late but never mind la ... it's sometimes better late than never =P (excuses ..... $#@!&%) CNY was an occasion where all the family members get together. Talking and of course the most important is EATING!!!! This year reunion dinner was sort of rush as mom and dad plus bro were busy picking me up from JB and then Sis from KL. It was really a hectic reunion dinner day. So I will start my journey on the first day of CNY ^_^

First Day of CNY
These few years of CNY in the paternal side of the family was not as complete as the past few years. Yes, our grandfather was not here with us anymore to celebrate CNY. He has parted with this world and join another paradise. We mourned for about 3 years and it was about three years ago that we have CNY. Meaning we resume the ang pow (red packet) giving and receiving time hehehehhehe ... since I am not married, I am still consider a kid and therefore, ang pow is something that I wont be missing hehehehehe ....

Another thing that we have not been missing every single year is the A-ma's (Grandmother) Mee Sua (Longetivity noodles). Every year, no matter how her health is, she will definitely cook this noodles. For the past few years A-ma has been wheel-chaired since she fractured her pelvic bone. Though a metal plate was inserted, she cant really walk. She can walk a few steps and her pelvic bone will start to hurt. So she is wheel-chaired now. However, that didnt stop her from making this noodles. Of course she is instructing the maid to do that ..... she cant even stand for like 5 minutes!! This noodles is totally a vegetarian noodles. The soup was of black fungus, nappa cabbage, shitake mushrooms and dried flower's buds/petals. Noodles are cooked separately and was mixed with oil (or else they will stick together if they were left long enough). And the most important is the seaweed. This seaweed was not deep fried, but pan fried with oil and salt. This taste really and superbly good. I will always have 2-3 bowls of this noodles every year!!! Cos you get only to eat this once a year.... hahahahhahahahaa....

After the visit from A-ma's house, it's dinner time again. So we hop into any restaurants that was opened that night. Well, lucky enough that Ocean was opened out of so many that were closed. They only offered package meals. Well, fair enough .... First up was of course the never miss Yee Sang (Raw fish representing alive again). This dish signifies to bring prosperity, wealth and to wash away bad luck of the past year. So we will mix the ingredients together with chopstick and at the same time we will say something good or something that we wish for loud and clear. The higher your chopstick are when mixing the better .... so normally the kids will just spill everything out from the plate and it ends up only half of it left in the bowl. I wont really blog each dish one by one ... cos it will be too lengthy. But overall the food was really great despite the many people that they have in the house. Satisfactory reached!!

This sharkfin with crab meat (of course not the real sharkfin is used ... normally it is a synthetic ones judging from the price of the menu )

A-BA-LO-NE dont be too happy just yet .... MUSHROOMS!!! with brocolli

Fried prawn balls with some crispy donno what .... top with some mayonnaise

Thai-style steamed red garoupa. Taste really good and the fish was very very very fresh!!!

Lotus rice. We found that we cant finish all .. .so we daboa this rice.

Then of course a family photo that cant be missed!!!

The meal was really great and my gastronomical tract was very satisfied. Hehehehehehee......

Second day of CNY

Second day was maternal A-ma's day. So here mum was the main cook for this year. Cos all these years Da-Yi (Big Aunt) was always the one to cook. So this year she relieve a bit for the second day though she was still cooking for the first day, skipped the second day and the rest of the days of CNY. My this Da-Yi is really a all-rounder. She cooks, she bakes, she tailors, she cuts hair, she paints, .. everything you name it and most of the time she was able to do it. However, due to the age that was catching up with her, she cant do that many things at a time anymore. But I still do salute her for being able to paint the WHOLE semi-detached house all by herself!!! Quite impressive heh?! OK ok back to the story, since mum was the main cook, how can the assistant sit idly doing nothing. So of course have to help also lor .... See the proof? We were making "Sempoa dish - a Hakka dish" But too bad we forgot San-Yi (Third Aunt) is married to a Hakka ... hahahhahahahaha .... the dish didnt turn out very well ... so erk ... ..... of course got commented ......

Da-Yi's acar. She is a good acar maker. The acar she makes taste much better than those native in Malaysia. Oh ya oh ya also her sambal .... I am salivating now ... *Gulp* really can beat those that you can get on the shopping mall saying they are the best seller .... they really cant be compared ... Trust me!! She cooks good nasi lemak too but due to the unhealthiness of this food, she doesnt want to cook nasi lemak anymore.... sad .... Back to the acar, this dish is always selling like hot cakes during CNY but too bad I am not a big fan of acar. Hahahhaa .. I dont really like sour stuff. Even tomatoes I will opt for cherry tomatoes ...

Stew sea cucumber. Also another Da-Yi's specialty. Me not a fan of sea-cucumber too but it has the best nutrition for the skin. So must take at least a bit for the sake of my skin hahahahaha ...

Tua-Kim's (Aunty Hoon - First Uncle's Wife) speacialty. Our home made Yee Sang. Taste better than those selling in restaurants ^_^

another Da-Yi's specialty. Every year a must have!! It's an hot item too. Cannot miss. If she doesnt make this people will go around bugging her to do or flood her with a lot of questions why ...

Mum's specialty ... boiled vegetables. Mum is a very good cook in healthy food. Most of my recipes idea come from her. As every week without failing, she will tell me which kind of food is healthy and to sustain youth, what kind of nutrition that it contains and which kind of food that cannot combine together so as it will suppress the positive effect of the food to our body.

Boiled brocolli topped with this time REAL A-BA-LO-NE!!!

And of course before starting anything, we have to family pictures la. My maternal side of the family with cousins. Quite a big family ya .... hehehehehehehee

Time to Lou Hei (Mixing the Yee Sang) .... HUAT HUAT HUAT AHHHH!!!!!!!!! Oops I accidentally deleted the pics ... sorry folks!! I hope you are not too tired reading it as this is REALLY A LONG ONE!!!

I am at New York New York!!

Finally, finished with my report writing. I hope there will not be much changes but I doubt so. But whatever it is Thank God that it finally ended for this week. Let's what is to come next week leave it for next week. Since I am not feeling quite well today, Shalom took the initiative to have dinner at West Coast Plaza. It was very nice of him to let me have my way to eat Western today. Well, two choices of western here; either Fish & Co. or New York New York. So Shalom chose New York New York. It's been a while since I stepped into here. To my surprise, the menu CHANGE!!! *Gasp* It look better though .... hehehehe ...

They are offering set meals now. SGD 7.80 per set for choices of pastas and rice with ice lemon tea and a side dish (fries, potato chips, garden salad, ?????). They have 4 choices of the side dish but I just cant remember what. Shalom is a fries lover. So undoubtedly, he got his fries!!

We accompanied the main dish with the dory fish rice. At first, Shalom chose bolognese .... but I dont fancy bolognese that much. Not because I am not a beef lover, I just dont really like the taste of the tomatoes ... too sour for me =P. Again, GOOD Shalom as peaceful as his name, chosen another main dish. The fish dory was really tender. It was coated with a layer of egg white before pan-frying the fish. An enhancement to the fragrance of DORY. Oh, DORY I love eat YOU!!! It was coupled with rice and coleslaw. Ehto ... rice is rice and coleslaw just taste coleslaw ... nothing much to talk about on these two. The main character here - THE DORY!!

Then, we chose two side dishes. First is ceasar salad. We need our greens. Shalom needs a lot of greens too. I wonder what kind of dressing is used to make ceasar salad. I quite like it. Maybe some time I should try making one myself. I really wonder how it will turn out. Ingredients are simple but the dressing I dont think it's that simple. Just google the dressing and as I expected, it requires quite a few ingredients to do that. Well, dining out is still the most easy way out. =P

Next up is the mussels!! The mussels taste really good. With the cheese as toppings, it taste really great! Must eat it when it's hot. Hmm this I think it will be easy to make. Just put the cheese on top, and bake it. Maybe can put a bit of pasta sauce to make it tastier? Definitely this can be a good try out! Wait till I possess an oven. Then, definitely can make it ... hehehehehe ... and there are whole loads of stuffs that I wanted to try-out if I have an oven ... but I guess the one who may be my guinea pig is Shalom Wangrangsimakul hahahahahahahahahahahaha

That's for our dinner. Although the picture may seem small, but the portion was more than enough to feed us both. But the dinner was a bit too pricey. It cost about SGD 38 where normally we only had about less than SGD20 dinner for two .... Thanks to Shalom, I get to eat such a sumptuous meal. Arigato-ne, anata ^_^

A Great Jap Restaurant at Seri Pacific KL, Kofuku

Hi, it's been a while since I blog. I think the last time that I blog is about curry chicken that I cooked? Recently, I went to one of the International Water Association (IWA) conferences in Kuala Lumpur. I was lucky as the conference hall is just adjacent to PWTC, the place where my sister is currently working at. So, I got free rides and lodging plus food too. Hehehehehehhee.... This is the first day when I was in KL. Since the conference registration is at 8pm at night, me and sis wanted to find some place near the conference ground. She said there is nothing special to eat at the mall opposite the hotel. Therefore, she suggested this particular restaurant, Kofuku at Seri Pacific Kuala Lumpur.

We ordered a bento set that cost about RM78 and it's sufficient for two person as the portion are quite big. However, the Japanese on the other table can take one set per person. To me I really cant finish the whole thing. First thing up as appetizer is the red squid. I like the squid as there were not hard but it doesnt lose its chewy texture PLUS it is not fishy at all. Taste great! This means the squid is fresh.

Next they have the salad that comes together with the bento. This salad was like normal salad. Not really up to my expectation though.


Then, came the garlic fried rice. Smell so garlic. If you guys dont like garlic better dont try. You can opt for white rice. The waiter was kind enough to divide the rice into two small bowls without us telling. What a good service!

This was the main dish of that day. There are four different types of dish altogether and I will introduce them one by one.

Adegashi Tofu is just a normal adegashi tofu that you can get in Sushi Tei. Nothing special or remarkable about this.

The vegetables wasnt what I expected too. It's a little too salty. However, despite everything, the vegetables were not overcooked and of course fresh in overall.

This is the dish that makes your money worth the food. The prawns were succulent and the scallop were fresh and chewy. However, it's not as big as those that I got in Japan. I think, it will cost even more with that size of scallop in Japan. This is good enough. Love it. It might have been fried together with butter and milk as I sense a strong taste of butter and milk. Oh ya the prawns were big too. It's more than enough for two!! Worth the money!!

Salmon is the usual pan fried. TO ensure the salmon taste good, it's the freshness that counts! The salmon dish out here was really fresh. IT was not dried too after pan fried. IF the salmon is not fresh, sometimes it will be too dry or too fishy for you to eat. But this I just love it. Nice nice nice!!

At the end of the meal, we were served with ice-cream and fruits. It's included in the bento set. But I dont really like the taste of the ice-cream. Too sweet for me and the fruits are just normal. I guess what is really worth are those prawns with scallop and salmon.

Overall, this is a meal that worth the money. This restaurant provides buffet lunch and dinner too. If you are buffet lovers, you can try it out! Cant remember how much it cost though ... hehehhehehehee ... till then see you guys next time ^_^

Acknowledgement:
Thanks a lot for my beloved sis for bringing me to such a nice place to eat. She is always the one who is buying all the nice dinner. Best sister in the world!! Thanks thanks!!!

Curry Chicken Try-out Plus Mushroom Pak Choy in Oyster

I had long want to try cooking curry chicken using my crockpot/slow cooker and rice cooker. This day had finally come!! Yaaataaa!! Hmm ... it wasnt as hard as I had imagined but it took a while to get cook. The required ingredients are:-

• Chicken (any part that you prefer .. I selected drumsticks)
• Potatoes (cut them into cubes either big or small)
• Tomatoes (divide them into about 4 or 6 depending on how big the tomatoes are)
• Curry premix (you can get that in any groceries shop but for Western countries it will be a bit hard to find)
• Non-cholesterol coconut milk

It was really easy. First, sautee the everything except coconut milk (this got to be the last) till it was fragrance in your rice cooker. OIL is NOT NEEDED here. Then, add 1/2 cup of water or 1 cup if you prefer more gravy. Off the stove and pour the sautee into the slow cooker. Cook in high mode for about 2 hours or boiling. Pour the curry chicken from the slow cooker into the rice cooker again and bring to boil. Following that step, add coconut milk (to your preference, some like it thick and some like it thin) and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. It's ready to be served!!

To my surprise, it really tasted REEEEEEEEEEEALLLL good. Equivalent to those that you can get in prata shop!! I really love it an of course, my dear Shalom love it too!! Hehehehehhee ....

How can chicken goes without vegetables? In order to have a healthy meal, vegetable is a must. Since I dont have gas stove and wok, again my rice cooker was put into good use again. This is really fast and easy. What you need is:-

• Shitake mushrooms (soaked --> sliced when soften --> soak again to make it softer and more tender to bite)
• Pak Choy (washed and cut away the root)
• Oyster Sauce
• Sesame oil
• Cornstarch

I first did the veg first. I boil a quater full hot water. Put the veg into the boiling water for 1 minute then take it out. Pro-long boiling will cause the veg to look yellowish and not healthy for consumption as all the vits are destroyed by the heat. Put the cooked veg into a plate and arrange them in whatever pattern that you like. As for mushrooms, mixed them together with oyster sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch. Steam them using the boiling water which you used to cook your veg (save water and electricity ma....) and leave it for about 30 mins. See if the gravy is viscous enough. If it is not, add more cornstarch (mix them with water before putting in) and steam for another 15 mins. Pour it on top of the pak choy and it's ready to be served.

This meal was a sumptous one. I would say some idea for a Chinese New Year meal? Simple and hassle free. Hmm..next time if I owned a house, I will try making the curry premix myself hehehehehhehehe .. .i sorta of know how to do but you really need a wok to do that as you need to stir-fry the premix to make it taste better. Have fun trying out ^_^