Guest Blogging @Rasa Malaysia - Sate Ayam/Babi Kecap

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!
OH. MY. GOSH!
I am guest blogging for the first time!
What should I do?
What should I make?
...and most importantly....
What should I wear?

Thanks a million to Bee of Rasa Malaysia for being my first.
(Is it just me? or does it sound so wrong somehow? Heheh ^_^)

Finally, I made...something that's made me a hit in parties....
Sate Babi/Ayam Bumbu Kecap

Hop on over to Bee's wonderful blog full of gorgeousness and deliciousness to check out the full recipe and story.

So what did I finally wear?
Just be glad it was not nothing.

Maxim's Fast Food Shabu Shabu

When the mercury drops below 20C...as always...
- 2009 version of the 80s shoulder padded jackets dominated the streets
- boots sightings everywhere
- air con gets turned off, windows are opened wide...
- and eateries all around Hong Kong promote the heck outta their hot pot/steam boat/shabu-shabu menu

...and we all rushed to dip our chopsticks into various MSG laden hot pot broth and stuff ourselves with delicious morsels.

I am no exception.

It all started with an adorable little pot....

The menu offers a selection of food (vegetables, mushrooms, udon noodles, fish and prawn cakes with crab roe, a soup base), dipping sauces, a drink and a few selection of main protein: beef, pork or chicken.
Select one main for HK$42, two for HK$51 (USD6.5)...and sous chef and I, naturally, chose two mains, and still add an extra serving of dumplings (HK$15).
So much for dietary intentions and just sharing one pot...:p

The beef slices were not too fatty, but still tender, and the sliced pork was surprisingly tender, even after a few minutes of cooking.

The dumplings were a pleasant surprise! They stuffed the wonderfully chewy skin with pork and preserved meat. Tasty tasty tasty! Totally worth the HK$15 extra charge ^_^

We had the pork bone soup base, which turned sweeter and more delicious after it's infused with all the flavors from the meat and vegetables. Now, dip...


...and consume.

I go for fast food hot pot when...
- I had no mood to prepare my own at home
- I can't be bothered to book/queue for a table in proper hotpot restaurants
- Sous chef's mom isn't available to make a hotpot dinner
- sous chef insisted to

Visit Maxim's website for more info

Lucky Dessert: Durians - Love, Hate & Everything in Between

You're either a durian person or you aren't.

...or I just haven't met anyone who's in between.

...or you love durians only when they're frozen and pretty much lost all of its stinks/fragrance. Let's face it, those can no longer be regarded as durians.

...or maybe you used to love durians so much, you overate and got super sick of it and now you are a major durian hater.

...or nothing in this world is black and white.
There are greys and shocking pinks everywhere...there are always exceptions.

In my case, I'd consider myself a major durian lover. I think they are fragrant, sweet, creamy, yummy, velvety, and they come in my favorite color...from the prettiest pale to the richest and most intense....glorious yellow.

I love my durians as they are, nothing else necessary, don't turn them into sorbet, ice cream, candies, or god forbid...sushi. Please, just DON'T.

But...(in life, we always need a but) I love how Lucky Dessert dealt with durians. They serve my favorite durian desserts ever!


Durian Baked Puff Rolls (HK$37 ~ US$4.8).
Durian goodness wrapped in flaky, butter puff pastry, dusted with sugar? Oh yes! A million times YES!

...and these Top Grade Durian in Sticky Rice Rolls (HK$38 ~ US$4.8)...
Sweet and creamy goodness in chewy sticky rice wrap...dusted with steamed coconut flakes....simply toe-curling!

What a sinful bite.

There's only one thing. They garnished everything with a strawberry, and not a good one. Even a good strawberry may pale in comparison to Durian's pungent flavor and fragrance.....the strawberry had no business being there, hmm....apart to look pretty.

If you're a durian person, who happened to be in town, and would like to try these durian goodnesses...

Get ready to queue for a seat.

Lucky Dessert
G/F 27 Soy Street, Mongkok
Tel: +852 2332 8919

or go to their less known branch...

Shop 10, G/F, Grand Tower
369 Nathan Road, Mongkok
Tel: +852 2396 6928

If you aren't a durian person or everything else in between, no worries.
They also serve non durian desserts.

Steamed Carp Belly with Chinese Bean Paste

Try reciting this again and again, real fast:
Steamed carp belly...
Steamed carp belly...
Steamed carp belly...

No problem yet?
Try typing (no copy and pasting)
Steamed carp belly
Steamed carp belly
Steamed cra (back space back space) carp belly
Heheheh...

I chuckled again and again in front of my laptop typing this...I need to get a life.

Love this fish (wan yu), especially the belly. The meat's succulent, satiny smooth, the bones are gigantic and relatively soft, easy to spot and pull out. They're gigantic, and they're relatively cheap! HK$30 (USD3.8) can get you a couple giant slabs of carp belly, which is the exact amount needed to get me sated from a fish.

If you're bored with the usual soy sauce, ginger and spring onion steamed fish combo, try this one.

Clean the carp belly slabs and place them on a plate.
Finely chop 1 clove of garlic, cut a sprig of spring onions to 5 cm pieces, julienne a slice of ginger, finely chop red chilli, scatter them on top of the fish, add a couple tbsp of Chinese bean paste (get this from Asian stores/Chinese grocer, in Cantonese it is called min si. It's remotely similar to miso, but a lot sweeter and it still has beans in it instead of a smooth paste)...

...and steam it for 8-10 minutes.

After steaming...hello succulent, satiny smooth cr carp belly...

The heck with food styling (opppps, sorry), let me just quickly devour this.

Black Pepper Burger & Chocolate Pie from McD plus Sham Shui Po Cute Prop Sightings

Psssst. I love junk food.
Go on, judge me...I love McDonald's, KFC, Jollibee, and all kinds of junk some people do not consider as food. Yum, yum, yum!
I especially lovee it when McDonald's having seasonal stuff like this black pepper burger.
You can choose between double black pepper burger, or a quadruple one with four slices of meat!!!
Isn't that a suicide on a plate? Wouldn't you love to devour it?
As much as I love junk food, I still want to live quite a while longer to be able to enjoy more of them :p
So I opted for double black pepper burger, not the towering quadruple.
Two slices of juicy grilled meat with tasty black pepper sauce, topped with a bit of chopped onion, in between soft buns. Yum!
I'll just eat lots of veggie and white meat for dinner later to compensate.

They also offer chocolate pie.

Flaky chocolate pastry crust...

With soft chocolate filling.
Not too bad, the crust is really flaky, not too sweet, but overall? Not chocolatey enough for me.
Are they available in your area? Show me what's available there please ^_^

The best way to burn all those evil calories?

Go shopping! I spotted this delightful stall full of gorgeous Chinese goodies in the flea market.

So so so hard to resist...but I successfully did.

Pssst. I already have most of them, unused, in my overflowing cupboard.
So much for being good at resisting temptations.

Nasi Goreng Kunyit - Turmeric Fried Rice

My closest friends are well aware that I am a yellow freak.

I love everything yellow.
I can't get enough of yellows...
- on me (if you saw me buying another yellow top...just let me, it's my thing. get over it)
- at home (I had my study room painted bright yellow. I accessorized other rooms with yellows, I buy yellow flowers...yellow, yellow, yellow!)
- on my food too (lemon, bananas, egg yolk, golden brown fried foods, yellow curries and spices...yum!)

However, I don't do saffron (hello, expensive)...but I love poor man's saffron, turmeric.

It turns everything gloriously golden and appetizing, and I love its mild fragrance and flavor, especially when paired with its good spice friends, cumin and corriander seeds.

Use the flavor combo for curries, meat or vegetable dishes...but when in doubt....make fried rice, just like what I did.

Fried rice has been my easy way out these days.
Dump any lean meat, vegetables, aromatics and spices, mix them together with tiniest bit of oil in a non stick pan, and I got myself a quick, easy, tasty, spicy, super satisfying, hearty and healthy dinner.


Recipe
- 1 cup of rice (I use white and brown rice), cooked, refrigerated overnight
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 or 2 red chilli, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped into small bits
- any lean meat, cut into bite sized chunks (I used boneless, skinless chicken breast, half a pound)
- salt, pepper, sugar, ground corriander seeds, ground cumin, turmeric powder, 1 tsp olive oil, a couple dashes of fish sauce

In a non stick pan, saute garlic, shallot, and chilli in that tiny bit of olive oil. Add bell pepper chunks, add chicken, add rice, season with all the spices, taste until you reach the desired flavor balance. You should taste the salt, and the fragrance of all the spices, the color of your fried rice should be beautifully golden.

That reminds me, I don't have a yellow hand bag.
Let's go shopping.