I chose to take their bruschetta as appertizer and this shrimp linguine as the main course. I think we have tried most of their main course such as pan fried fish with angel hair, pizza caprese and a few more which I can’t recall now in that RM29.90 offer but none was satisfying enough for me. I still like their classic carbonara the best.

As expected I didn’t finish the shrimp linguine, packed them home and it ended up being thrown in the dustbin 2 days later..huhu! So much for trying to save some money. Next time I should have ordered the bruschetta for RM14.90 and classic carbonara lunch size for RM29.90.

At least nothing would be wasted.

Shrimp Linguine, Italiannies originally appeared on CintaRasa on July 28, 2010.

There are many version of mee kari recipes, both online and offline. I don’t have chicken in stock so I decided to use udang (prawn), kerang (cockles) and fishball instead.

For the paste, I blended the thinly sliced lemongrass (serai), ginger and galangal (lengkuas). I also put in red onion and garlic. For this particular mee kari, I used rempah kari daging/ayam Adabi. Maybe next time I will use Baba’s curry powder just to see whether it makes any difference to the spicy-ness level..heh!

Oh, I also added in a ladle full of blended dried chili when frying the spice paste. As usual I use santan kotak MS brand…the small packet (200ml) will do because I don’t want the gravy to be too thick with coconut milk.

For the additional liquid, I used stock I made by boiling the shells and head of the prawns I de-shelled the night before. I kept those prawn shells in freezer and boiled them for about 20 minutes to make air rebusan udang.

I put in tauhu pok (the fried dried tofu) as it is a must ingredient found in mee kari. You can also add in fish cake as it is more salty compared to normal white fishball and give more oommph to the gravy taste.

After many years of not cooking mee kari, I would say it was not that bad. After a tweak here and there (Hubby prefers it to be more spicy), we managed to finish the 3/4 pot of kuah mee kari..haha!

Mee Kari Kerang originally appeared on CintaRasa on July 8, 2010.

Well, for Mother’s Day dinner this year, I thought I want to try something new. We have been walking past the Sakae Sushi outlet many, many times so I thought what the heck, let’s give it a try.

At first impression, I have to say that it’s quite impressive to order everything through the screen.

And then the blooper started since I ordered cold green tea, and the waitress (who is not local I presumed) brought me an empty ceramic cup and a sachet of green tea. When I told her, I wanted cold tea, she said she will bring ice (I was like whatt the he** but still I give it a chance)

The hot water tap is right beside the table which for family with small children is not a bright idea. And if you are planning to bring in children in strollers, just forget about it. The outlet in The Curve is too cramped..I think they feel that people with family shouldn’t enjoy sushi. I don’t even think they have child seat either since I saw none and they offered none to us. I rather go for Sushi King next time for all these factors.

Nevertheless since I was hungry, I ordered their bento set, just to test how good is their tempura and unagi compared to Sushi King.

While waiting, I took Mochi from the kaiten belt since I read in someone’s blog that the mochi there is good.

It was ok and the price is RM5.90 for that 3 lumpy desserts.

I browsed through their sushi menu but nothing particular caught my attention. I feel that their selection is too fancy…plus I would like to really eat my bento. So we just took a plate of unagi from the kaiten belt and sadly I have to say, I really didn’t like the taste, like very bland, tasteless..huhu!

After waiting for more than 20 minutes, I still didn’t get my bento set. I don’t know what take them so long since there were not that many customers in the restaurant. Even the iced water that Hubby ordered didn’t come from the kitchen eventhough the order was keyed in in the interactive menu. We asked the waitress for cancellation, and she said she will check the kitchen for my bento. By that time it was already 10pm and I was already not in the mood to enjoy anything from Sakae Sushi.

In the end, I persistently said just cancel the order, we paid the bill and went somewhere else for dinner. Thanks Sakae Sushi for ruining my Mother’s Day dinner, you really know how to treat your customer right! Others, please don’t bother to try unless you are willing to waste your time and money.

Sakae Sushi, The Curve originally appeared on CintaRasa on June 1, 2010.

Usually I will simmer the beef stock longer, and if possible to use ribs or bones part of the beef.

For this one, I just fried the blended chili, onion and garlic till fragrant and then I put in all the other ingredients like prawns, fishball and beef slices.

Then I put in plain water, add in cuka makan (vinegar), Maggi chili and tomato sauce (sos cili and sos tomato Maggi), soy sauce (I used kicap Tamin), salt and sugar for seasoning.

Other condiments like the beansprouts, sawi and fried tofu were prepared separately. The vege were blanched in boiling water.

It is quite a tedious process to prepare a complete set but in the end it is just worth it! Try it at home. Oh, you can also add on hard boiled egg as part of the condiments. For those who like bawang goreng (fried sliced shallots) or daun sup (Chinese celery), you can add on those two as well.

Mee Kuah originally appeared on CintaRasa on June 1, 2010.

The interesting aspect of this sambal is the usage of candlenut or buah keras in the paste. I’ve never use buah keras in any of my home cooked meal except to do ayam bumbu. It is said that the usage of candlenut gives the dish a more ‘lemak’ taste.

I will link to his recipe once I could find the correct entry. (Updated : Here is the link to his recipe - Tumis Udang Petai) In the meantime, do any of you notice that I am using pinggan lama with corak bunga kangkung for the photo shoot? Bought a few pieces of those pinggan antik at Amcorp Mall, just to have a different style of serving plate for kampung recipes..hehe!

Sambal Udang Nyonya Style originally appeared on CintaRasa on May 18, 2010.

1. Blog Name / URL

Welcome to my food blog : CintaRasa - Love The Taste (http://www.cintarasa.com)

2. When do you start blogging?

This food blog was started in April 2007.

3. Introduce yourself and your blog

I prefer to remain anonymous and only be known as Cinta. I am a wife and WAHM. This is my third blog with food as its niche. Other blogs are either personal or hobby related. My main intention to have a food blog at first is to make it easier for me to sort my writing into one category, although I do mention about food, eating places or my home cooking in my personal blog.

4. Why do you blog about food?

Prior to having baby, we love to eat out, try new eating places, even travel to try good food. So I thought since I can write and I think I have good judgment (cough, cough..) when it comes to food, I might as well share it with others who feel the need to check out any new food or to try the new eating places. Occasionally, whenever I cook at home, I included such entries in this blog as well. You will never believe it how many people search about ayam masak kicap every day on this blog..haha!

5. Do you make money with your food blog?

Yes, through Google AdSense, Nuffnang. Every now and then I do write sponsored posts for overseas companies.

6. Why should we pick your food blog?

It will be a win-win situation for both parties. I can get more exposures from the readers of MBP (MomBloggersPlanet) and MBP could also be known through my food blog. Some of my readers and visitors are not mothers, so introducing them to the world of great blogging MOMS will be a refreshing idea.

Thanks to MBP for holding this contest. For those who feel that their blog falls under food category, feel free to enter this I Blog About Food - Pick Me contest.

I Blog About Food – Pick Me! originally appeared on CintaRasa on May 12, 2010.

Well, for a start, you can dump in all the washed cockles in a pot, put some water and let it boil. There, you have a pot of kerang rebus already.

Or you can make it more edible, something soupy that you can slurp while enjoying the flesh of the boiled cockles.

I put in a big onion that has been sliced, a pinch of salt and bruised 3 stalks of lemongrass into the pot of water and cockles. (Don’t put in too much water, put in just enough to boil the kerang). The serai gave such a lovely aroma into my humble sup kerang.

Of course, if you want more kick, you can dip the flesh of your kerang rebus into spicy sambal kicap. Now you can enjoy kerang rebus at home without going out to any seafood restaurant!

Kerang Rebus originally appeared on CintaRasa on April 27, 2010.

You can’t really see the noodle in the picture above as it was hidden beneath the assortment of vege and seafood. At a first glance, my friend who saw this picture on my other blog thought that it was a dish of mixed vege and seafood soup..huhu!

Anyway, for those interested to try cooking this recipe at home, you can check the recipe at Mat Gebu’s blog - Kuetiau Kungfu. He used flat noodle instead of the yellow egg noodle but the steps to cook are the same. You can also substitute yellow noodle with bihun if you prefer!

Mee Kungfu originally appeared on CintaRasa on April 24, 2010.

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Do You Have A Cooking Blog? originally appeared on CintaRasa on April 14, 2010.

But seriously, even Hubby said my cekodok pisang do look great this time, they are so cute in size. Even I was amazed to see the outcome of my jemput jemput pisang..(another proper term used to call this cekodok)

This time I used pisang emas to make these cekodok. I couldn’t find the English name for pisang emas. Anyone knows?

The best thing about making your own cekodok is that you can be very generous with the banana portion and use just enough flour in the mixture, unlike when you buy outside. The sellers tend to use too much flour which make their cekodok taste almost like banana cake..huhu!

Cekodok Pisang originally appeared on CintaRasa on April 12, 2010.