Chef Ak in action - Chawanmushi

This is my first attempt at preparing a big size of Chawanmushi. Here is how I do it. 1. Beat 3 eggs into a bowl 2. Then cut filament crabstick in small dice 3. Soak dried mushroom for 20 minutes and cut into small chunk 4. Mix it all into egg bowl and beat it together. 5. Add 1 teaspoon of salt 6. Add approximately 200ml of water 7. Steam it for 25-30 minutes How was it taste like? Erm, a typical chawanmushi lor minus the appearance. I should have added a little pepper for better taste. I will rate myself a B for this.

Chef Ak in action - Long Bean Rice, Egg Cabbage, Tauki, Fishball Soup

This is my second time cooking Long Bean Rice and I could say this one definitely tasted much better than the previous one. The previous one I put in small pcs of dried scallop and this time I substitute it with dried shrimp. The reason I put in dried scallop on that time was because there is no dried shrimp available. Instead of using long bean (Chai Tou), I used 'O Kui Tou' this time. The rice was added in more water as the previous one is a little too dry and hard. This time the result it quite good. The fried egg cabbage is equally good too. I love this dry type of cooking. Some people love it dry while other prefers a little wet. It takes time to cook this cabbage as you need to fry until the cabbage dry. I wanted to throw in prawns but there is no prawn available in the market I go. So I put in a little chunk of chicken meat and the outcome is good too. Then the next dish is Tauki cook ala chili sauce and some other ingredients. Not bad in my humble opinion. The last one is fishball soup. Simple and fast to cook. I just throw in tomatoes, ikan bilis, ginger and fish ball into the soup. This Saturday I am going to cook for Daph. It will be the first time I cook Chinese dishes for her. The menu is more and less like this one. There could be additional sambal prawn and other veges too. We will just see what we could get in the morning wet market. The soup I am going to cook will be Lotus Root and the meat that I am putting in will be pork rib. I am sure the taste will be even better. It's hard to buy pork rib as most of the minimart doesn't sell it Let's just see how long I will enjoy main masak masak. Normally I am the kind of person that are '3 minute excitement.' So to all my friends, please enjoy while you still can.

Penang Trip 2009 (Part 4)

Today is our last day here in Penang. One thing bad about Tune hotel is check in late at 2.00pm but check out early at 10.00am. If you stayed in the room after 10.00am, the power card will automatically cut off all the power in your room. After checking out from Tune, we head to Sungai Pinang for the famous curry mee. The stall located just in front of Honda showroom at Sungai Pinang. The curry mee only cost Rm3 per bowl and the portion is kinda small. The curry is spicy with the hint of light coconut, sambal, top with fresh cockles, prawns and squids. We didn't go for the more famous one such as Lorong Seratus Tahun curry mee as there are a few branches in Selangor. We also ordered duck mee sua which is also a famous there. In my humble opinion, it's a little too oily. I still prefer the one in Bidor. It's time to say goodbye to Penang. We headed back via Penang Bridge and reached Taiping around 12.30pm. Sister and her husband treat us western lunch in Paronama Hotel. Then we rested at their home for a while and headed to Taiping Lake. I must admit that Taiping Lake really does have beautiful scenery. This is my third visit here and as for Daph, it was her first time here. Of course she was stunned and surprised by the beauty of the lake. We left Taiping at 4.30pm and head to Ipoh for dinner. By 5.29pm we are already at the famous Lou Wong Bean Sprouts Chicken shop (Nga Choi Gai). Besides being the most famous, Lou Wong was also agreed, by many to serve one of the best Bean Sprouts Chicken Rice in Ipoh. We ordered their bean sprouts, steam chicken; beef ball soup, chicken rice and kuey teow. The kuey teow here is very smooth and tasty because of the sweet, flavorful soup. The famous beef ball in the other hand is big and the texture is springy and bouncy. I love their fat juicy bean sprouts very much. The steam chicken skin is slippery smooth and taste good as well. Just a few steps away from Lou Wong, there are Ipoh famous Tau Foo Fah shop but unfortunately, the Tau Foo Fah already sold out. We just get to taste their soya milk mix with Cincau which is kinda normal. We reached home sweet home in Kepong around 8.15pm. It’s another good journey we both had together. We were supposed to fly off to China on 19th July 2009 and celebrate my birthday in China but due to H1N1, we postpone our China trip to October. I am glad that we postpone the trip as in July, the weather in China is extremely hot. October considered the best time to visit as it’s not too cold or too hot. I really enjoyed our makan makan trip in Penang and definitely having a great time here.

My 28th Birthday

I celebrated my 28th birthday much ealier this year with a bunch of my friends and housemate on 17th July 2009. This is because on the 18th, I am going to Penang for 4 days 3 nights trip. This year, Abu and his assistant prepared western food in my house. There is 1. Cordon Bleu Chicken 2. Spaghetti 3. Garlic Bread (This one Keh Wah prepared) 4. Chicken Soup 5. Secret Recipe Cake There is 8 of us who attend this small celebration and I really enjoy the dinner very much. Thanks to all of them that make it happen that night.

Penang Trip 2009 (Part 3)

Day 3 Today we woke around 7.15am and reached One Corner Cafe at 8.45am. We ordered the Hokkien Mee aka prawn mee and waited for a freaking 45minute! Mind you it was on Monday morning where there is no public holiday. We drink our coffee until dry (kering kontang) also the mee haven't arrived yet. Alas, around 9.35am, our hokkien mee arrive on our table. True enough, it was the best hokkien mee I ever had in 28 years of living. The soup is sweet and spicy. I believe that they use a lot of prawns and rib bones to cook this soup, that's why the sweetness is all there. Everything is make almost to perfect! It’s really worth the waits! Today our destination is to Penang Hill aka Bukit Bendera. I wonder why Malay and English name are different. It should be name Flag Hill or Bukit Penang. It took about 20 minute to reach to the top. On top of the Penang Hill, we could see Penang from sky view and its wonderful scenery. The weather is good too considering not as hot as in town. Not windy enough but there is a little chill. There ain’t much thing to do here as there is only a Malay food courts, mosque, an Indian temple, resorts and a small bird park. There is a canopy walk way but closed down due to some fallen tree. Seriously, there is nothing to do here! We spend about 2 and a half hour here. Mostly just relaxed ourselves and photo shooting. Following The Star book, we went to Kedai Kopi Sin Hwa at opposite of Pulau Tikus police station in Jalan Burma. It's said to be famous among the locals compared to the more popular tourist places for CKT such as Lorong Selamat, Ah Leng and The Sister. The CKT in my humble opinion is a little too dry. It's just a normal CKT. I came to know later from the net that the stall was really good in the past, but the original lady had left and the guy frying the CKT was actually her assistant! No wonder it tastes so normal. We also ordered the said to be famous gulai asam fish and it's another letdown. Not worth mentioning at all. Next our GPS navigate us to Taman Botanic and we reached there in no time. I really love GPS as it helps us a lot in every single direction in Penang. It's so easy to go anywhere with GPS. Taman Botanic is comparable to FRIM in Kepong.It's also known as the "Waterfall Gardens" because of the cascading waterfall nearby. The original gardens were established in 1884 from an old quarry site. Nothing much around here and the monkey are nowhere to be seen. We just take a stroll along the park and left the place less for than half 45 minutes. Next we head to Fort Cornwallis which is also a normal sightseeing tourist place. Nothing much around there but just like Melaka A.Fomosa, there is cannon here and there. The star-shaped Fort Cornwallis stands at the place where Francis Light and crew landed on August 11th, 1786 to "take possession" of the island of Penang. Before that the island belonged to the Sultan of Kedah. Anyway both Botanic and Fort Cornwallis are just "been there, done that", kinda thing. We head back to Tune Hotel around 5.30pm and have a good rest. We only continued our journey at 7.30pm to the famous Gurney Drive. We ordered lots of food for our dinner. 1. Asam Laksa (very nice) 2. Wan Tan Mee (lose to Mlk) 3. Siham (nice and big but lose to Mlk tepi longkang siham) 4. Otak Otak (very very bad!) 5. Chee Cheong Fun (very nice) 6. Rojak (the prawn paste is extremely good) 7. Durian (Best!!!) After the makan makan, we walk around Gurney Plaza and later had a slice of Durian Cheese cake and Caramel Cake in one and the only one in Penang, Secret Recipe. The cake is considered to be my birthday cake from Daph. We couldn't even finish both slices of the cake. We then relax ourselves at Gurney Drive before heading back to our Tune hotel.

Chef Ak in action - Lotus Soup, Cabbage and Chicken

While going back from work yesterday evening, I thought to cook soup and so I went to the Minimart pasar near my house and bought Lotus, ground peanut, chicken, cabbage and dried shrimp. At first my intention is only to cook soup but then decided to cook other dishes as well. My menu today is cabbage with egg, lotus root soup and soy sauce chicken. For the cabbage menu, it was my mum recipe. I called her up to ask for some tips. Firstly fry the garlic and dried shrimp to fragrance, then pour in the beaten egg and fried until it look dry. Then add in the cabbage and fry until dry. Finally add in salt to taste. I love these dishes very much. For the chicken, I have no idea so I just fry with garlic and ginger. Add in light and dark soy sauce and a little sesame oil. It tastes a little salty as I add in half tea spoon of salt. Then I took some tauki and mix it together. I call it Soy Sauce Chicken Tauki. Haha. For the lotus soup, 45 minute of cooking the soup is not sufficient enough to soften the ground peanut and lotus. The taste is there but the lotus and peanut is a little hard. Lastly, I add in tauki into the soup which spoil the original taste. Then i forgotten to peel off the lotus skin. The result I would say I give a B+ for the cabbage with egg while chicken and lotus soup both get a C. I have learned a lesson today after a few cooking. Never ever simply add in other ingredient to cook as it will lose the original taste.

Penang Trip 2009 (Part 2)

Day 2 Today we woke up at 8.00am and went for food hunt using The Star's Guide to Malaysian Street Food book. Our target is Super Hokkien Mee at Jalan Rangoon. After locking the satellite position in the GPS, we followed the ‘turn by turn’ direction and reached the place in no time. It seems a little different from what the book had written and when we ask the coffee shop waiter there, she told us that the Super Hokkien Mee has already shifted years ago. OMG, we already ordered the wrong one. It tasted normal and we quickly finished up and rushed to the new place given by the waitress. When we reached there around 9.20am, it's already SOLD OUT. Wow, so early! The new place is in One Corner Cafe at behind Giant (near to Tune Hotel). We vowed to go there early tomorrow morning! Our destination is Kek Lok Si temple at Jalan Air Hitam. It shouldn't take more than 20min from Tune Hotel but it was Sunday and it happens to be wet market in the morning around that area. We were caught in jam and reached there by 10.10am. There seems to be some renovation here and there in Kek Lok Si. There is even some new section for us to explore. We climb the Pagoda and overheard a conversation between a tour guy with some Caucasian saying that once you started to climb, you need to finish it to the top and not half way. I am not sure what does it indicate. Heck, it's very easy to climb the Pagoda stairs. On top of the Pagoda, it’s breathtaking scenery. We also took the lift alike to the top of Kek Lok Si and we could clearly see a giant statue of Buddha being under construction. It’s very nice to visit here during non public or school holiday. There are not much people around and it's easy to walk. I remembered once I was there during super peak holiday season and it was like bumper to bumper crawl. After nearly 3 hours of walking under hot and tiring day, we came down and had our lunch in a coffee shop nearby. Coffee shop near Kek Lok Si temple. 1. Asam laksa (Normal) 2. CKT (Normal) We then let our GPS to navigate us to Reclining Buddha temple (Wat Chayamangkalaram) at Lorong Burma. It’s the 3rd largest reclining sleeping Buddha in South East Asia. We took a few photos there before heading back to Tune hotel. Oh ya, we did stop by Restaurant Ice dan Kacang at Lorong Selamat to have their homemade peanut ice cream which is recommended by The Star book. At Rm1 a scoop, it's dirt cheap. The texture and smoothness of the ice cream are comparable to some branded local market. We were supposed to eat a famous Pasembur at Lorong Swatow but when we reached there we are being told by the local that it had already closed down years ago. We then bought a packet of Pasembur at New Park food court and ate it in our hotel. It’s a little expensive at RM13 a pack but could be shared by 3 persons. We then went back to Tune hotel for a refreshing bath. The main purpose for us to go back to the hotel was the camera is out of batt. We are also kinda out or batt too and need to have a good bath and rest. After the refreshing rest, we continued our journey to Toy Museum at Tanjong Bungah and reached there by 5.37pm. There is a lot of action figure in this toy museum. I would say it's just an average place to visit as most of the toy displayed in the shelf is like those displayed in shopping mall. It's being reputed as the largest of its kind in the world and this museum house over 100,000 toys, dolls and others fun collectibles. We spend almost 1 and a half hour there taking lots of action figure photo. Then we continued our journey to Batu Ferringhi and reached there at 7.27pm. We took a stroll along the beach for half an hour and are able to catch sunset on that time. Then we had our dinner in one of a food court at Batu Ferringhi. Batu Ferringhi Food Court 1. Prawn Seafood Yee Mee (Normal) 2. Hokkien Char (Normal) 3. Ikan Bakar (Better than average) After dinner, we walk along the night market and Daph bought a paired of sandals. We then travel to Air Hitam following The Star book for Penang best Oh Chien but unfortunately, it was the rest day. According to the book, it stated that the rest day is on Monday but they seem to have moved their rest day to Sunday. So we head back to Tune hotel and call it a day.

Penang Trip 2009 (Part 1)

Day 1 (18/07/2009) We started our journey around 8.30am and reached Pun Chun @ Bidor for our breakfast. Ordered their famous herbal duck soup and the swee bao. Yummy as usual! We then continued our journey to Taiping and reached my sister house around 12.30pm. Thanks to the GPS, we found our way to my sister house easily. We took our lunch at Kedai Kopi Prima where we ordered curry mee, popiah, seafood porridge and the famous 'amocana' aka buah kedondong juice. We then continued our journey to Butterworth ferry terminal and reached Georgetown around 4.20pm. Day 1 (18th July 2009) This is the second time I took a ferry to Penang Island. The first time was many years ago with my colleague. The ferry price ticket cost us Rm7.70 and duration is about 15min. Gps then navigate us with ease and we reached Tune Hotel in Georgetown at 5.00pm. We took a bath and rest for a while. Surprisingly Tune Hotel is really a great, clean and nice hotel. The only downside is it’s a little cramp. Air cond calculation was like 12H and 24H credit. We bought a 24H credit and a 12H credit. A total hour that the air cond can be use is 36H. We estimated 12H per night use. There is other adds on such as toilette and tower that cost Rm5 but we didn't take it. We only add on hair dryer which cost Rm1 per stay. With the total price of Rm60 per night, it’s a steal. Overall, I would like to give thumbs up for Tune Hotel for the superb strategic location. It’s in center of Georgetown and only about 600m walk to Komtar. Then we walk to New Lane hawker center for our dinner. New Lane hawker center (outside Sunway hotel) 1. Pork Intestine porridge (Crispy part are nice) 2. Oh Chien (Overkilled price @ Rm10 small plate) 3. Hokkien Mee (So so only) 4. Chicken Wing (Not really nice) 5. Char Kuey Teow (Very good!!) After our makan makan, we head to Komtar which is only a few meter from New Lane. Komtar, an iconic landmark in Penang but is a very run down building. The place doesn’t look safe during night time. Maybe an upgrading or renovation should be carry out around Komtar. The shop outside Komtar looks like in the 70's. Then we continued walking to Penang Timesquare which is a new shopping complex. It hasn’t been fully open yet. Daph spend me a cone of Swensen mint choco ice cream which tastes very good. When walking back to Tune hotel, we ta pau (take away) Char Kuey Teow (CKT) at New Lane. We waited for about 30 minutes and had our supper in Tune hotel. All I could say is this New Lane CKT is worth the wait! We slept around 11.30pm as we need to wake up early for our tomorrow full packed schedule.

Chef Ak in action - Fishball Egg Soup

Today my housemate is cooking dinner and I decided to join in the fun too. I thought to prepare the soup. On the way back from my office, I was thinking what soup should I cook and lastly decided to cook egg soup. Ingredient for the soup of the day is 3 eggs, a few pieces of chicken chunk, tomatoes, carrot, potato and fishball. Yeah, I know it's a tad over ingredient but the other add in ingredient was a left over in the fridge that need to be cleared off. Normally egg soup should only cook with eggs and chicken chunk. Some fried their eggs first before add in the water but I doesn’t want to cook in that way. Of course if you fry it first, it will taste even better but the soup will ended up a little oily. So instead, I just beat the eggs lightly in the bowl and pour into the boiling water. How's the outcome like? I love it! I would grade myself a B. My housemate cooks other dishes such as long bean (Okui Tou), dry soy sauce chicken and steam tofu. I couldn't believe I am so into cooking now. But I guess it's usual for me. Hangat hangat tahi ayam as always. Haha PS: Btw, all photo on my previous cooking was taken with my lauzy 2MP Nokia 7210. Sorry for the low quality photo.

Chef Ak in action - Long Bean Rice

Here I am to test run my cooking skill again. I was thinking to cook for my housemate and was wondering what type of dishes is simple and easy to cook. Suddenly, I remembered my mum cooked a simple dish for us whenever she is busy. Long Bean Rice aka Chai Tou Fan (Chinese) So I started to recall what my mum had put-in her long bean rice and how do I cook this dish. I finally came to conclusion that I need long bean obviously, chicken or pork meat chunk, dried shrimp, ginger, pepper, garlic and mushroom. All I need to get from the market when I am back home from work was just the long bean and ready fried onion. I already had the rest of ingredient at home. No pork but I still have left over chicken meat. A simple call to my mum while I was working in the afternoon to ask some tips from her. She told me to fry the long bean and chicken first before putting it into the rice cooker otherwise it might be a little raw for the long bean and chicken. So I started to fry all the garlic, then add in the chicken chunk. After a while, I simply put in the long bean and boiled mushroom to fry. Lastly I added some light and dark soya sauce as the seasoning. I didn't put in the salt and our food is low sodium base. After cooking for about 10-15 minute, it was being transported into the rice cooker. It was then cook together with the rice. The soup in the other hand is rather simple. Corn (I love corn), tomatoes, chicken meat ball and chicken skin as flavour. Add a small teaspoon of salt and that's all for the soup. Simple isn’t it? How is the outcome? Well, the soup tastes good to me. As you know, I really love soup so maybe I am a little bias on that. Now come to the main dish, the long bean rice. I would have self grade myself a 'B or B+' if the rice is a little softer. The rice is a little bit hard thus indicated that the water is a little less. I wanted to add in more water on that time but it looks to me that the water is sufficient enough. I wonder is it because of the long bean or some other thing that absorb the water off. My final verdict, I only grade myself a 'B-'. Again, I felt happy to see that my cooking is fully eaten up by me and my housemate. The satisfaction is there. It's kinda fun to cook and I guess my housemate will continue to be my white mice a little bit longer. *as they are more than willing to*

Chef Ak in action - Chicken Rice

How could my big mouth challenged somebody that eats like a monster? Loser will have to cook. Yeah, I lost to a monster that can eat like Godzilla. Seriously! I dun really know how to cook. Not even rice. Normally, it was me and Daph that do the cooking. She will cook the rice and some dishes while I cook the soup. Most of the thing I cook will either end up chau ta (burn out). Soup will never be chau ta and that's why I ‘love’ to cook soup. Lol. But today, I need to cook for my housemate all alone by myself. A quick check on the net and some tips from Daph, I prepare a few simple dishes. 1. Chicken Rice 2. Steamed Taufu 3. Ngar Choi (bean sprout) 4. Chicken meat ball cook ala tomato sauce 5. ABCDEF Soup. I took my lunch hour time to go Tesco to get some vege, chicken meat and a whole lot of list. I started to cook around 6.30pm after working today and everything is ready by an hour time. So how was the result? Well, for my personnel view, I would say the chicken rice is too salty. Maybe that's because I have pour in too much of serbuk pati ayam. The chicken is a little overcook hence a little hard to chew. Others, I would still consider them as acceptable for me. I am not sure about my housemate but they seem to be fine. An hour has passed and so far nobody is being rushed to the hospital yet. Well, this is my first official chinese dishes cooking. It turnout to be ‘still acceptable’. Although it doesn't taste good, but somehow the satisfaction to see my housemate to sapu it all clean is good. (Though by forcing them to finished up) Haha. If I would to rate A which is excellent and F is Failed, I would rate myself a C+.