Hana For Sunday

Thuk.Thuk.Thuk.

I smiled to myself as I sliced through the mushrooms, thinking it's a tad bit indulgent to be doing this. I'd normally just make a standard instant noodle thing when eating alone at home, but I figured a little effort once in a while wouldn't hurt. Mummy would approve.

So there I was slicing mushrooms as the oil heated up in my saucepan. Chucking the slices in and threw in some chunks of canned salmon as well. I fried for a bit then poured it all out for later.

Filling the saucepan with boiling water, I threw in a pack of instant noodles, turned the fire low, then went off to brush my teeth. By the time my teeth were done, so were the noodles. Good. I drained off a good portion of the water in the saucepan, sprinkled in a little of the instant noodle seasoning (not too much, since I'm not using enough water for soup), then cracked in an egg. Off came the pan from the fire, and I mixed the eggs and seasoning into the noodles.

Noodles get slopped onto a plate, the salmon and mushrooms are thrown on top, then I sprinkled in pine nuts and flowers. Yes, flowers! I'm a fairy, no doubt about it.

So that's my breakfast for one on a Sunday morning. Who says eating alone is boring?

Hana Nissin - Noodles in seafood-flavored egg sauce,
served with sauteed salmon and mushroom, toasted pine nuts,
and a fresh floral salad

For Cold Days When One Needs To Stock Up On Insulation

The slab of Philadelphia Cream Cheese sat in the bowl, looking quite pleased with itself. Poor thing. It didn't know it was gonna get a rather severe beating.

I squeezed a little lime juice over it (the better to sting the cheese with), and got down to it. Whip whip whip. Philadelphia cream cheese cowered and slipped around the bowl, trying to escape. I stoically scraped the sides and carried on. Whip whip whip.

Finally the cheese smoothened out, though not as fluffy as I would have liked it. Maybe I wasn't harsh enough, didn't bruise it enough. Ah heck, I'm too nice, I guess. I would do anything for food, but I won't do that.

Letting the cheese take a breather, I reached for the saucepan and set it over a low, smouldering flame. Peanut butter, smooth smooth peanut butter went spooning into my saucepan. Slop, slop. Hmmm... maybe another slop. Just about as much as the cheese in the bowl. Waiting in the saucepan was a pool of sweetened condensed milk, hopefully enough to coax the peanut butter into a smooth, peanuty, milky liquid mixture. Stir stir stir. Looks like it worked.

The saucepan now hovered above the bowl, tipping, slowly tipping. And the peanut butter milk flowed. Swirl. Golden brown streaked the pale yellow of the subdued cheese. Swirl. The colors folded, the flavors unfolded. Swirl. Oh how it shines.

Out comes the whisk. The cream is waiting. Whisk whisk whisk. The cream frothens. Whisk some more. The cream thickens. Whisk again. Oh why the heck aren't those peaks forming? Forget it. I'm done, even if the cream is not.

In goes the cream, with the cream cheese that's been violated by the peanut butter that's been scalded by the condensed milk, and the whole abused lot gets folded together. Happiness.

Interlude: Check on the cookie base. Should be ready now. Two packs worth of Oreo crumbs (twisted, licked - well, scraped, to be honest - clean of cream, and crushed... totally crushed) glued together with butter and pressed to the bottom of a pan. Two hours in the fridge oughta do it. It did do it.

So the peanut butter and cheese goo gets poured over the cookie base and the whole gang gets to chill in the freezer overnight to set. Then it's down to the fridge so that it wouldn't come out like a brick when it's time to serve.

And so it is done. Hopefully an improvement over the peanut butter cheesecake I had tried before (two years back!). And I think it is - definitely the Oreo base was a better choice over chocolatised rice puffs. There are those who'd like it to be less cheesy. And there are those who'd like it to be less peanut buttery. For me, I like it any which way, as long as the cake gets eaten and I don't have too much leftover ingredients lying around.

And now to fatten up!

Yeah, You PMS

As it turns out, a little PMS once in a while isn't a bad thing. Especially when you're having friends over for lunch and you don't wanna worry too much about preparing food (especially when you've got a messy apartment to worry about as well).

So here's an idea for an easy to make standalone meal - Processed Meat Spaghetti, which is what I called my spaghetti served with sausage, ham and bacon with spinach and mushrooms in a tomato cream sauce. Which pretty much describes every ingredient in there :P

First up, heat olive oil in a pot then brown chopped garlic and onions in it. Throw in sausages, ham and bacon (all sliced) and fry till just about cooked. Add sliced mushrooms and fry a little more.

Pour in tomato puree or diced tomatoes (I used both) and bring to a boil. Throw in baby spinach leaves then reduce heat till it's simmering slowly.

Stir in cream, season with herbs and chilli flakes to taste, return the sauce to a simmer, then turn off the fire.

Boil some spaghetti, dish spag onto plate, slop on the processed meat sauce, and there you go - a not entirely healthy yet well-rounded meal.

Bon apetit!

It's Not So Quiet, Shh Shh

So the year's winding down, and everyone seems to be having a havoc time, holidaying (for those clearing their leaves) or working (or making a show of it, anyway). Over here in drownedglass land, all hell seems bent on breaking loose at my job site. No rest for the wicked? Mayhaps, but all I can do over here is pester those responsible to get the problems solved pronto, year-end holidays and annual leaves be damned.

In between placating clients, pushing colleagues and pummeling contractors, there's still time enough for me to patter away on my keyboard, perhaps reminisce about the year that's just about to pass on... but you know, the end-of-December miasma is not just making me slack on work, my brain's kinda on auto-pilot mode which means I can't really write this post either. Hence, the meandering (even more than usual). Ah heck, I'll just be lazy and recap the highlights of my 2008 that managed to get blogged about :P

January: The month of firsts... My first and (I swear) last experience of letting fish eat me. Also my first (and hopefully not last) taste of Delish cupcakes. And the first of what would turn to be a semi-regular gathering with a bunch of real titties!

February: What else, but Chinese New Year (it's a short month) and that never-to-be-fulfilled non-resolution.

March: I turned 32 *yawn*. More significantly, there was plenty of food, especially meat. And Cook said hello to me... ME!

April: Stork delivered a boy (like, finally)! Began mulling over migration about this time, though I'm lingering on still.

May: Went to heaven, then to hell, and found a little hope. It helped that I had a new toy to play with.

June: A lousy time, and not just because of the exorbitant fuel price hike.

July: Compensated by throwing myself into SYTYCD Season 4, and, inspired by the choreography and songs, made up not one, not two, but three stories. I guess dream therapy helps.

August: Had started my exile at the end of June and barely had time for anything - be it friends, family or blogging. All work + no play = dull boy.

September: Seems like the exile was cutting off my social life to the point where I got all maudlin over meat.

October: Things picked up with the return of a certain prodigal, and gay ol' times were had with the ex- (and the practically-ex) bloggers - including the rather terrifying introduction of jiu hu char into my potluck repertoire and the uttering of what is most certainly the quote of the year.

Novemeber: A very good month indeed - completed my dream collection, a wish finally came true, and I rediscovered my roots... "di sebalik batu", so to speak.

December: With things to look forward to, I take a wistful look backwards. But the year is drawing to a close, and with that comes high spirits and the inevitable family drama (or perhaps it was just me storming in a teacup... as usual).

All in all, I had a very good year indeed. The job's so much better than my previous one; my circle of friends has grown wider, yet no less cosy; there's stuff to look forward to (at least for a little while); and generally things are looking kinda up, despite the downturn. Who knows what tomorrow would bring, but it doesn't really matter. I've learnt that I have grown enough to face all sorts of shit now, and what with such wonderful people surrounding me, everything will be quite alright, as long as we hold on together.

Happy New Year, everybelly!

Jew Who Char?

Potluck. A social meal where everyone brings something to the table. Literally.

I'm normally all for potlucks. I get to polish my *ahem* culinary skills without having the headache of catering the entire meal, plus it's a way to experiment with new recipes and unleash them on unsuspecting friends.

But, wow. THREE potlucks in two weekends? I can't really do that wide a repertoire in so short a time frame.

Bringing my standard fruit salad to one party (for like, the nth time already) and buying my way out of another (someone's buying cake and needs some financial assistance? Count me in!), I still had to dish out another... dish. And boy, had I some serious competition to contend with.

The menu was already sounding like a lineup of traditional favourites - Kitty Satay, Spotty Pong Teh, Cubitt Wine Chicken and Twin Style Prawns... even a continental dessert in the form of a lovely Snowy Bread & Butter Pudding! And oh, starters as well, painstakingly put together into a platter of Jaymaki Rolls.

What with all that food already, I figured I'd go low profile and serve the vegetables. Not wanting to do a generic chop suey though, I drew inspiration from the Straights Chinese (but not necessarily straight Chinese) and decided on ju hu char - literally, cuttlefish fry, even though it's really shredded turnip fried with dried cuttlefish and not the other way round. Simple enough. Or so I thought.

Three supermarkets later, I finally found dried cuttlefish in Giant. And realised that turnip, known to us as bang kuang or mengkuang, is actually called sengkuang in supermarket speak. The drama-ness.

I tweaked the recipe I found from Audrey and measured my ingredients by sight. Dangerous, cause my eyes are rather greedy and always hungry. So I ended up with two large turnips, four carrots, a few handfuls of soaked dried chinese mushrooms, two dried cuttlefish (all julienned) and several cloves of garlic (chopped coarsely), fried in olive oil and light soy sauce in a small wok that barely contained everything (in fact it didn't cause I threw away about a quarter of the turnip). I was ready to feed a small platoon of hot, starving soldiers.

You know, potlucks are also about popularity. As in, "I brought this dish so you're gonna keep eating it if you're my friend. Even if it kills you" kind of thing. A clean plate would indicate a succesful socialite. Fine, it could really just mean the food was very delish but we're polite society, and in polite society, there's always the issue of giving face.

So how did my ju hu char fare? I ashamedly admit that only half the plate was eaten. Yes, I have bitches for friends. But then again, I served enough for two dozen when there were only eight of us to eat it.

I guess my friends don't hate me, after all. At least, not that much.

Nutty Monkey!

You see, I have a thing for peanut butter chocolate ice cream. Unfortunately, it's not something you'd easily find in the supermarkets. So much so I finally decided to take matters into my own hands. Quite literally.

Having scoured the ice cream aisles of KL without success, I ended up bringing home a tub of regular chocolate ice cream. And a jar of crunchy peanut butter. Softened the ice cream and stirred the peanut butter in bit by bit. Diced some bananas and threw those in as well.

As simple as that, and there is now a tub of chocolate banana & peanut butter ice cream sitting in my freezer. Probably not for long.

Bon apetit!

Making SENs

Spam. Eggs. Noodles. The kind of dinner one has when one's Chinese and is a student living away from home with little money to spare. Or if one, like me, is Chinese, a salaryman, single, lives alone at home, and, on some days, really can't be stuffed to be eating at one of the few almost decent eating places dotting one's neighbourhood.

Thankfully, the few things in my fridge were enough for me to cook up a few twists on this Chinese collegeboy classic. Here are three (cos that's all I've managed):


The typical spam and egg noodles, just that I've thrown in a bit more stuff to round it off. Boil dried mushrooms and dried shrimp to make the soup base and cook instant noodles in it (practically any flavour you like, though I was using Mamee Duck Noodles). Throw in some of the soup flavoring that comes with the noodles, but not all of it, since the mushrooms and shrimp already flavor the soup. When it's done, throw in some pickled chinese cabbage.

Fry an egg and two or three (or more) slices of lanciao luncheon meat to go with the noodles.


Boil noodles, drain and set aside.

Fry chopped garlic with dried shrimp and cubed luncheon meat until fragrant, then add french beans and carrots with a sprinkling of water. Add oyster sauce to taste. Mix a large pinch of cornflour into a small bowl of water and add this into the wok when the vegetables are cooked. Bring to a boil, turn off the fire, and stir in an egg. Pour over the noodles and serve.

Throw on a handful of meat floss as well, if you want, for some added oomph.


Boil some beans till almost done, then add noodles and boil until everything's cooked. Drain and toss in a combination of sesame oil, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce.

Fry chopped garlic and sliced mushrooms until it smells nice and chinesey, then throw in mashed-up luncheon meat and fry some more. Turn the fire down low. Beat an egg and pour it over the lot, then fold the egg to cover. Serve it on top of the noodles.

...

Sure, it's nothing as mama-at-home-style cooking as what Ry has been busy with lately, but heck, he's cooking for someone while I'm cooking for one. Sure beats having plain instant noodles any day, though, and not all that much more work.

32

So what's the perfect antidote to that huge-ass, meat-stuffed brunch I had on Sunday?

I don't know, but surely it can't be all the lemak I had for dinner that same day! Still, what the heck, I just had a craving for it and strangely enough it's one of those things that's not so commonly found in KL, and when you do find it, half the time it's just not done right. Surprising, since it's not all that hard to make.

So I perah-ed the kelapa (by which I mean I opened a can of coconut extract), chopped the carrots and long beans, shredded the cabbage, ground the dried shrimp, and threw everything into a pot to boil. A dash of turmeric powder and a scattering of salt, and there you have it... Sayur Lodeh, mixed vegetables cooked in coconut milk, which forms the basis of any lontong.

I opted for the lontong darat style, which basically is a dry-ish version of lontong. It's less messy, and more importantly, I don't have a pot big enough to cook sufficient gravy for the regular lontong. Hehe.


Just to make sure my guests got a bit more of variety, I got sambal sotong, satay and tea eggs to complement it. PLUS, meat floss to top it all off.

[ Hostess's Hint: Meat floss adds flavour, texture and fun to an otherwise bland dish. Try it with steamed rice, porridge, instant noodles, or like me, when making lontong for the first time and you want to have something to conveniently cover up any inadequacies ]

This year's birthday dinner turned out to be a much quieter affair compared to the previous two years. Everyone's so busy these days (or maybe my friends just don't love me anymore). In any case, it was kind of a relief because I always hate having to deal with the logistics of a dinner party for a dozen or so people. Sorting out what to seat people on, what to entertain them with, preparing enough food and diningware... I'm just not a party-planning person.

So in a way it was just nice that there were only six of us that night. We could sit comfortably around the dining table, and I could serve my guests using real plates and bowl and forks and spoons and glasses. And my pots and serving bowls are just big enough to cater a group this size.

Well, my thanks to C&J for ditching C's final company dinner in favor of my little do. Perhaps I should have organised a lucky draw to compensate your missing out on that one!

Thanks to the monkey and his McCutie for bringing the satay, the nasi impit (couldn't have had lontong without that!) and most of all, for doing the washing up. And yeah, thanks for the book as well... think I'll love it *Hugs*

And, of course, thanks to WiFi, for having the foresight to bring a cake, despite my telling everyone they needn't bring anything. Like, how was I to know I'd fail at making a cake, even if said cake was prepared from a store-bought premix per instructions on the box?

Actually, the cake turned out fine but fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan. Seemed that I missed out on the instruction that said "line the pan with baking paper". Sigh. So while we could technically still eat the Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Crumble (formerly to be known as Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake), it would have been a little bit difficult figuring out where to stick a candle on that mess of cake pieces, sliced bananas and melting ice-cream.

Incidentally, WiFi bought a "Crystal Orange" cake. I wondered if it was by coincidence that the baker had come up with batches of this, so soon after Chinese New Year.


All in all, I had I nice weekend before my birthday, what with the brunch I had and then the dinner. My birthday itself was spent quietly with no fanfare whatsoever in the office, followed by a relaxing spot of BodyBalance at the gym.

It turned out that there was a teensy bit of fanfare, after all. Joining yw[2k] and the other gym kaki for dinner, I was surprised by Wingedman popping up with a cake (with a cake, I said, not out of a cake). Eeeks! Just what I need, more cake... but at least it wasn't some space cake from Amsterdam!


Thanks, everyone, for making this a nice, cheery, drama-free 32nd birthday! I can only wish the rest of the year would be as pleasant as the last few days have been :-)

Daidai

Again, we have come to the end of the beginning of the Chinese lunar year.

Again, many of us find ourselves with a surplus of mandarin oranges in our homes. Even for one like myself, who only brought a handful of these back with me from my mom's home, plus a couple from the office. I do like these things, though I don't eat too much of them, and one easily gets sick of it over the fifteen days of Chinese New Year. Really, I only get them for their ornamental values.

That, and the prospect of attracting wealth (apparently, oranges, or kam, are symbolic of gold).

Perhaps it is this yearly surplus of tangerines that led some people to come up with a strange idea of disposing them - throw them into the nearest river. Of course, nobody would be bothered to do this, and some may even complain of river pollution, but for the carrot (or rather, orange) dangled.

The fifteenth day of the lunar new year is supposedly the "Chinese Valentine' Day" (maybe he was called Hua Lan Tai in China). Therefore, single girls should throw oranges into the water, hoping to find their perfect match, out of a bevy of prospective suitors standing downriver in the hopes of landing the right orange. I suppose it might work if they wrote down their mobile numbers in waterproof ink onto silk kerchiefs and stuffed said kerchiefs into the poor oranges, so that the guys would know whose orange they've picked.

Personally, I think it's rather silly. The girls managed to throw out the excess oranges from new year, but the guys willingly bring home discarded fruit. This may be one of the rare days when Chinese parents would be thankful for not having sons. At least, not straight ones prone to fishing for rotting mandarins.

I'm thinking it might be a better idea to just throw a party. It is the last day of new year, after all, and all the more reason to have a party. Besides, you're more likely to get lucky with a guy at a party, as opposed to crowding around a very large drain.

And of course, the theme of the party would have to be "Orange". But don't tell your guests that because if they knew they were going to help you finish eating all the oranges in your home, they'll quite likely find themselves suddenly preoccupied with an appointment for washing the neighbour's sixth aunt's colleague's daughter's dog's hair or something.

I'm thinking the meal could be something like that:

Starters: Bacon-wrapped Tangerines
Mains: Mandarin Pork Roast, served with a side of Mandarin Orange Couscous and a Spinach and Pine Nut Salad (just because there's no "orange" in the name does not mean there isn't any in the salad)
Dessert: Mountainous Mandarin Pie
(Disclaimer: I've never tested any of the recipes, so I can't vouch for any of them. But they sure do sound worth trying out - just maybe not all at the same time)

After dinner, you could watch some orange-related shows like Bleach (featuring a really hot-looking Shinigame, despite the orange hair) or for something short, No Doubt's Don't Speak MV (not really auspiscious, but Gwen looks so good with that orange in her hand). You might wanna leave out A Clockwork Orange though - haven't seen that one but I'm guessing it's not exactly festive.

And afterwards, when the party has quieted down and there are still leftover mandarins, well, I'm sure you can think of ways of using them to celebrate a Chinese Valentine's Day with one (or more) of your guests.

Of Food, Fun and Friends

Gathering around tables is something most people do. Whether it is over dinner or over a round of drinks, the table has always been a place for conversation and company. Unsurprisingly, I've been doing the dinner/drinks rounds with various friends over the last week or two. I've been constantly away for so long that I'm losing track of what's what and who's doing who, so it was good to finally be back for a longer period of time.

So around I went, though they were all spontaneous gatherings. From fine dining with the who's-whos of blogging (or rather, more appropriately, who-weres) at Alexis, to sinful dining at Delicious; from dai chow at Kota Damansara, to teh halia in Puchong and Bukit Jalil; it's been seriously fun. And fattening.

But heck, it's all in the name of compadre-ship.

In the end, I figured for once, I'd do the catching up in the comfort of my own home. It's about time to polish up my rusty culinary skills, anyway. So I whipped up a simple meal in my simple kitchen, and simply called some people over for a simple dinner.

No, I didn't plan a party, nor was I doing a do. It was, for all intents and purposes, instant noodles and canned tuna. With a side of mushrooms. And of course, fruit salad for desert, while we watched High School Musical on my 14" TV (gawd, I really need to get a much bigger one).

The simple things in life can be nice, so long as there's good company :-)

Thanks to Slim and Kevin for bringing drinks, and to Chris and 38kia for doing the dishes!

A Salad, Stolen

Once upon a time, I made a salad. No, not the kind meant for rabbits. A fruit salad. Of fruits, for... fruits.

Easiest dish I ever made, and as it turned out, it was a crowd pleaser at the pot luck where I had presented it. That was quite a while back, and I hear my salad's been making the pot luck rounds. Without me.

Humph. That's what I get for coming up with something that's easier to make than stewed pork and cabbages (and much healthier to eat too!). Okay, admittedly it wasn't quite an original idea. I simply picked up the idea from a Paddy's Pancakes dessert dish and did a drastic simplification of it.

Anyway, I figured I shouldn't keep something so simple and scrumptious all to myself (and who knows how many others who've been having it without me), so here the recipe for anyone who just needs to make something without much effort.


The what:

canned peaches in syrup
fresh strawberries
ripe bananas
roasted peanuts, unsalted

The how:
Drain syrup off the peaches.
Dice the peaches, strawberries and bananas into bite-sized chunks.
Crush the peanuts.
Toss everything together.

Voila! Shiong's Simply Summer Salad is served.

If it's too peasanty for you, you could always glam it up by substituting the peanuts with pine nuts, add some dollar pancakes, throw in some boys 'n berries with whipped cream on top, or perhaps sin it up with a scoop of ice cream...

Did I say boys 'n berries? Oops. I meant boysenberries. Haha, silly me...

Anyway, there's leftovers from the batch I made for dessert tonight, so looks like I'll be having a healthy, fruity breakfast tomorrow.

Well, healthy, if I can stop myself from dumping on dollops of the choc/vanilla ice cream that's in my freezer. But still fruity, nevertheless.