Jane's Food Steps

Borneo Babymoon Day 4

2012-09-13T00:45:00.003-07:00

Forgive me for the looooooooooong hiatus. I got lazy over ramadhan and it just dragged on from there. I wasn't too keen on having people drool over food pictures while fasting. Then i realized I didnt even finish blogging about our baby moon trip. Sorrreeeee!!! Lets see if I still remember what went down...

I dragged hubs outta bed the next morning at 545am to catch the sunrise coz morning comes pretty early there. He was eager to get back to the warm bed but I stayed and watched for a while. It was beautiful. It fogged the day before but come morning- the skies parted and made for perfect viewing of the mount kinabalu. It actually looks like a big ass rock. But i found it to be just so beautiful.

After a pathetic breakfast at the hotel we went looking for the natural fish spa place which was recommended by foursquare. We arrived pretty early at 830am and were the only people there. The staff manning the river were really nice and friendly and laughed at our crazy screams piercing the early morning air. I had never been to a fish spa before- despite klang valley being overrun by fish spa places of late. And it had to be that the first time i went- the fishes were on steroids. They were HUGEEEE!!! like the kind u would steam whole and eat. I KID YOU NOT! They came really close to shore when they saw us coming, to the point that the top of their body was above water. Like they were waiting to pounce on us. It took me a good 20 mins before i found the courage to dip my feet in. The man kept telling us to go in deeper and deeper then conveniently told me that there was also a HUGE African catfish somewhere in the mix of giant fishes. Of course the deepest i went after that was just enough to submerge my ankles.

Hubs' screams n girly squeals did nothing to empower me. I dont blame him. At one point I was busy counting my toes to make sure they were all still there. It starts off being ticklish then the fishies will get excited and start sucking real hard that it starts to hurt- at which point ill begin looking for bloody water and missing toes. Thank god we left the place with all toes intact.

Dead skin-less and high from being mauled by giant fishes, we made our way to a dairy farm that hubs was eager to visit. The Desa Dairy Farm is located on the Mesilau Plateau, about 30 mins from the Kinabalu National Park. The road leading up the place was really bad. It didnt help that we were driving a proton saga which bumped on the road like doggy on a dashboard. But it was worth having our bones rattled coz it was the most beatiful farm i had ever seen in Malaysia. The smell of the farm leaves much to be desired- but it was really beautiful. The cool climate and high altitude made it feel like we were in another country. We wanted to buy some milk but they only had the 1 litre packs on hand and i didn't think I'd be able to down a entire litre in one go.

We made our way down the mountain after that back to KK town to return our rented car and to catch our flight home. We stopped by the Phillipine Market to buy some cheap avocadoes and some dried sotong.

Then we went back to Sutera Harbour where i had the best cheesecake in the world!! n i dont even like cheesecake. But i was so bored waiting at the lounge and the name- fresh cream cheesecake just called out to me. I love fresh cream anything! and boy was it good! It was crazy good. That was the last thing we ate in kk. Well save for the ice cream i had at the airport. We flew home shortly after that- and that was the end of our babymoon. This will be our last holiday with just the both of us for a long time to come. We had a wonderful time and i look forward to returning to Sabah again in the future.

Yeay finished blogging about Sabah!! FINALLYY!!

Borneo Babymoon Day 3

2012-07-12T01:28:00.001-07:00

On our third day in Sabah, we rented a car and made our way up to Kundasang for a nights stay at The Pine Resort which is halfway up Mount Kinabalu. I was super excited coz i have baby pictures of me up here at the same resort when i was barely learning to walk!! The wonderful concierge at Sutera Harbour drew us a simple map to help us get there with some pit stops along the way. We hadn't intended to rent a car so we didn't bring along the gps. Our initial plan to get there by bus was scraped when Sabri the Super-concierge explained that it would be majorly difficult to get around if we didn't have our own transport- boy were we glad we listened to him!! More on that later.

After another huge breakfast we went up for a short nap before checking out and going on our way. I love the Sabah coastal roads. They're so picturesque!! But i imagine it would look rather scary when a storm is brewing- coz the sea looks to be really close to the road!

We swung by McDonalds for a quick bite and ate while we drove to save time and made it to the Borneo Upside Down House at about 1pm- with the sun right over our heads. It was super super suuuuuuuuuuuuper hot. Sabri had insisted we make this pit stop as he himself has not visited it before. This attraction is new- having only been in operation since September last year. The name is self explanatory- the house was literally upside down, furniture, car and all!! It was interesting but it got old quickly as it was rather small and the heat did nothing to help.

Our next stop was the Jambatan Gantung Tamparuli or the Hanging Bridge of Tamparuli. Lagend has it that a virgin was sacrificed in the making of this bridge. Apparently the bridge was washed away many times as the spirit of the river wasn't happy about it. The girl was sacrificed as an offering to appease the spirit. Must have worked coz its still standing! It seems that if you were to swim underneath the bridge, u would see the name 'Solungkoi' engraved on a plaque underneath it. Solungkoi was the sacrificed virgin's name. I'd take the historians word for it. No way am i going swimming in that river!

After leaving Tamparuli town, we begin our climb up the mountain. The road leading up was in pretty good condition- think Simpang Pulai Cameron Higlands Road. We took a slow drive up and savoured the beautiful sceneries we saw along the way, stopping occasionally to snap a pic. Before checking in, we stopped by Kinabalu National Park. Hubs was under the impression that i wanted to go for hike. I don't know where he got this idea coz with my backache from the long drive and aching feet- i wasn't gonna walk 3 metres let alone 3 kilometres. So we drove around inside the park with d windows down then headed straight for the hotel. This turned out to be a blessing coz it started raining soon after.

We got a room facing Mount Kinabalu!! I was so happy!! Even tho the room was a far cry from the one we had at Sutera Harbour, the scenery more then made up it. It fogged when we arrived so we couldnt really see the peak, save for some peekaboo's here and there when the clouds broke.

We drove around a lil later in search of dinner and omg- ranau and kundasang just dies at night. Like seriously the town just dies!! We drove quite far out looking for restaurants before stumbling across Ranau town n saw a couple of restaurants which looked barely promising. After going around for a bit we settled at a malay eatery where i had the meehun soup n hubs had the chicken fried rice. Both turned out to be yucky! It seems that there are no good eateries up there- you're lucky enough to be able to eat at all!!

We took a walk later that night coz hubs had trouble sleeping and it was dead silent- well cept for the annoying karaoke going on next door and i looked up to the sky and it was dotted with millions of stars- it was really beautiful. I hardly even see stars in the city and to be able to look up and see so many was just breath taking.

Tune in for our next and last edition of our Borneo Babymoon coming up soon!!

Borneo Babymoon- Day 2

2012-07-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

I hardly slept a wink on our 1st night there for some reason i cannot fanthom. The bed was comfy, pillows were plush, aircond was jut nice. But i could not fall asleep. This resulted in me jumping up at 6am to have a nice long hot soak in the tub and bugging hubs to lets go down for breakfast nowww!!

The hotel breakfast was really good with a good balance of local and international cuisine. I stuffed myself silly with so much food that i could hardly move afterwards. The pancakes with cinnamon sugar and maple syrup was out of this world!! i went to sleep that night dreaming about it and could not wait to get up the next morning to have it- only to be told they didnt have it that day. Im gonna make it myself this week.

Coming to Sabah, I had wanted so badly to see some live orangutans at Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary, but after learning that it was 230kms away, I settled for the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. Sadly, the orang utan enclosure was closed when we got there :( We did see some pygmy elephants and probiscis monkeys which Borneo is famed for but for the RM120 cab fair (30 min journey)- i felt really dissppointed. Hubs almost got muzzled by this playfull baby elephant and actually fell trying to get away from it. I laughed so hard I was practically falling off my seat!

The Wildlife park was really just a small zoo. I saw the closed place where the orang utans were being kept while their enclosure was being renovated and stood outside the window and called out to them. I heard a distinctive sound of it sticking its tongue out at me and going "pbhttttttt!!". That made my day eventhough i didnt get to see them.

After leaving the wildlife park we tapau-ed some lunch to eat at the hotel and to get some shut eye before going out again when it was cooler. It was superbly hot while we were there as it was the dry season and they werent getting much rain just like us over here in the peninsula.

After our siesta, we headed to Tanjung Aru to catch the world famous sunset which everyone raved about. We walked along the stretch of restaurants but decided to reserve our tummy for dinner at this little italian place a friend had recommended. The beach was dotted with tiny crab holes. Hubs held on tight to my hand so i would not go running around like a mad fat women trying to catch the baby crabs.

We settled at this foodcourt and ordered some chicken wings and avocado juice to while away our time while waiting for the sun to set. The sunset was really beautiful. I dont think ive ever seen the sun looking so round and big n orange. But then again we never really pay much attention to sunsets over here.

After sunset we headed back to town to visit a local market recomended by our cab drive and to have dinner. The market turned out to be a disappointment with used clothing and other equally non interesting things on sale. Hubs talked me into walking to the italian eatery we were having dinner at instead of calling Jeffry our trusted driver. He pointed out it was only 600m to get there. I relented and we walked. We walked past huge billboards and crossed 3 laned roads. We cut thru roundabouts (I have never walked on foot at a roundabout b4. EVER!) and past giant hotels- and still not italian watevers.

At one point i just stopped walking and gave him the death glare. I was not going to walk another step. He fiddled with his phone and nonchalantly said- "ohhh mann!! we missed a turn!!". I gave his phone a glance and saw that it was going to be another 2km walk to get to dinner. I sat my butt down n waited for him to hail a cab. He was still fiddling with his phone then and proudly announced- "Eh yang! Its not 2km's laaa!! its 1.9!". I swear if it wasnt for my religion forbiding it- he would have had my foot for dinner.

But all was well when we got a cab who despite being clueless about the place- got us there in 4 mins flat. After all drama in getting there, I have to say, the food hardly made up for it. It wasnt bad- it just wasnt that good. We ordered a pizza, a lasagna with a side of garlic bread to share. The pizza was okay but the lasagna somehow tasted strangely like sambal to me. Our bill which included 2 iced lemon tea's came up to about RM70.

Jeffry was plenty surprised to find us there when we called him to pick us up. Even he said it was far!!! grrrr!!!

Safe to say i slept like a baby that night. All that walking drained me of all the life i had in me that night.

Borneo Babymoon - Day 1

2012-06-24T19:55:00.001-07:00

Hey all!! Sorry for the long hiatus. I wanted to post updates many times then i just got lazy much to hubs' dismay. He tried coaxing me into updating a couple of times but it didnt work so he gave up after a while. Anyhooo!! We came back from our awesome babymoon trip to Sabah lastnight. Most people dont know that i was born there, we moved back here when i was a year old and ive never been back since. So this trip was sort of like a bittersweet homecoming for me. Being hormonal, i actually teared up as we landed.

We stayed 2 nights at KK town and another night at Kundasang. I am eternally in love with Sutera Harbour Hotel where we stayed. We seriously want to go there again just to stay at the hotel- it is THAT awesome. Ill split this post into 3 parts as it's going to be quite lengthy.

Our hotel has its own marina and was super beautiful. We got a room facing the marina and the sea and i could just stare out the window for hours and hours on end. Our only gripe was the tv channels they provided. It didnt even have TV3 and no football channel. Considering its the football season i thought this was unjustified. Hubs was gonna leave me sleeping alone or drag me down (depending on my preference) and go catch the game at the sports bar downstairs. Thankfully, he was too sleepy to get up at 230 in the morning. Of course, me 'dodoi-ing' him back to slumber didnt help.

To fully explore the beauty of Sabah, one would need to be there about 2- 3 weeks as most attractions are spread far and wide. Of course we did not have the luxury of that. So in the 3 days that we had- we only managed to see the tip of the iceberg.

On the day we arrived, we took the hotel shuttle to Sabah Centre Point which is and old old mall (think Sg Wang/ Pertama Complex old) to grab lunch. The food court was under renovation and was sans floor. The tiles had been ripped off so it looks like ur eating at a construction site. I was famished by then so I didnt really care much for the ambiance. I was surprised to see that the chicken rice costs RM2.80 after hearing so much talk about how food costs a bomb here. I ordered the rice and a beef noodle for RM5. The rice turned out to be ordinary tasting but at RM2.80 it tasted above its price tag. The noodles however were awesome!! I have an obsession with noodles and this one made me really happy. The beef that it came with was perfectly cooked for hours till it was flaky and practically melted in my mouth. And hello?? Its 5 bucksss!! We went back for this on our last day and this morning i kicked myself for not 'tapau-ing' some home. The noodles are called kon lau mee daging or Tuaran mee.

We went to the waterfront to catch the sunset which is spose to be awesomely beautiful and swung by the Phillipine Market afterwards. The sunset, while gorgeous, could have done with better seating. We didnt go to the short strip of restaurants as they consisted of mainly bars and chinese eateries so we sat on some abandoned pipes and watched some local kids play on the dirty beach while the sun set. The restaurants claimed to be halal but i lost confidence after i saw 'buddha jumps over the wall' on the menu.

We had some fresh big prawns and huge squids at the market and it wasnt very good. The only saving grace was that the seafood was fresh but I got turned off by how dirty the place was. I did have a great time trying a bit of everything tho. However i gotta say, people here arent very friendly towards us Peninsula people (orang semenanjung). Their smiles turn into frowns when they hear our accent.

For some reason chicken wings are a big deal here. We tried some and it tasted nothing out of the ordinary. Hubs bought a chicken murtabak in case he got hungry later and it was quite good. It was deep fried as opposed to pan fried and was filled with fresh vegetables and eggs with mediocre amount of chicken meat instead of our normal meat and eggs filling.

I also filled up on avocado juice- my fav! Avocadoes here are really cheap as it is grown locally. In KL they normally cost me 5-6 ringgit each. I bought 2 kg's to bring home at only 13 ringgit.

We ended our 1st night in Borneo lounging by the hotel beach (hubs) and running around burning dinner by catching baby crabs (me). The beach was pretty small and private just how i like it. The picture above is of my footprints in the sand running zig zag trying to catch them crabs.

Ive got so much more to tell!! Will do so in the coming week! Toodloo!!

Free Mori Uptown

2012-06-07T20:25:00.001-07:00

I know i promised to blog about Sushi Zanmai but i HAVE to write about this before i forget- Hubs was out with d boys lastnight and since i didnt like being home alone, I asked him to send me over to mum's before he left. My sister n i went out n i found the most amazing bakery ever!! Ive always been a fan of bread- esp steaming hot ones and desserts make me go bonkers. Which explained my squeal of delight when i spotted this pretty new thang in damansara uptown. Ignoring na's deafening demands for ice cream (baskin robins is just nx door), I walked into Free Mori like an excited fat kid.

The bakery is so purdeyyyyyy!!! There werent too many choices since it was past 9pm when we walked in so I guess they had sold out of most stuff but my eyes was glued to the chilled dessert display. They all looked so tempting!! I had a hard time choosing but I finally settled for the Leite mousse (pronounced Light mousse i assume) and the oh so cute tiramisu. the tiramisu looked more like an entremet then something that is normally made in a casserole.

Na HAD to have a sugar donut (RM 2.30 i think?). I dont get this girls obsession with donuts. And we got a golden bar or was it golden bread for free. Popped by next door coz the fat girl would not quit with her demands for ice cream and headed home straight after but our 3 minute ride felt so long coz my sister drives like a 90 year old.

The Leite mousse (RM 7.50)- was gorgeous! It was nicely creamy without much or any gelatine. I hate mousse that uses gelatine. But i couldnt detect any hints of almond tho. The sponge was cottony soft but was a tad too sweet from being over brushed with syrup stock. I scraped most of the mousse off coz they were just so good. This is def something i would buy again.

The tiramisu (RM9.90) had a bit too much gelatine. The coffee flavour was also really subdued which would normally be fine by me coz i hate coffee but even i felt that this could do with a bit more bitterness to it. The sponge fingers was also abit too drenched in syrup (this tiramisu is rum free) making it too sweet. But look at it! Isnt it just the prettiest dessert??

Na's donut was nothing to shout about. I found it to be too dense for my liking having been spoiled with fluffy hollow donuts like J.co and Big apple. Same goes for the golden bar/ bread. Was too dense and a tad dry.

The cakes and bread here are a bit pricier then most run of the mill bakery but i would def come again to try their creme catalana and other desserts next time. The staff was really nice and friendly which is a plus point. They also have cookies and some gourmet coffee i think? Their bread loaves also looked pretty tempting. In fact i may just go again tonight. We'll see :)

Free Mori is located between Baskin Robins and Chatime in Uptown. It sits next to the alley that separates it from Baskins. Its got a side entrance which makes it really unique.

Free Mori Bakery Cafe Damansara Utama
48 Jalan SS21/58
Damansara Utama (Uptown)
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 03-7722 4157
Toll free: 1 800 22 9288

Sushi Q- One Utama

2012-06-03T20:02:00.001-07:00

Sometime last week hubs and i took a day of work to have some R & R time. We finally went to the movies after so long- it had come to a point where i had forgotten what the inside of a cinema looked like. I declared it was my turn to pick the movie since we couldnt remember who got the last pick. I wanted to see ' What to expect when you're expecting' for obvious reasons. The cinema was pretty much empty since it was the first show on a monday morning (i think). I bought some sushi from sushi Q to munch on in the cinema coz popcorn doesnt fill me up. Hubs made me pack leftover lamb mandy rice from ar-rawsha for him to eat. We were like a bunch of kampung people going for a picnic lah basically. This is what happens if you dont watch movies often- the thought of going without food for 2 hours scares the crap out of you and u end up hogging a bag full of food ~~enticing~~ annoying you neighbours with wafts of your food aroma making their dull popcorn appear worst then it is.

I felt the movie was good- probably coz i connected to the characters in more ways then one. I must have cried thru out the entire movie much to the amusement of hubs- who could not stop yawning. I understood Wendy (played by Elizabeth Banks) so much when she said- I just wanted the glow. The one that they promise you on the cover of those magazines. Well, I'm calling it - pregnancy sucks. Making a human being is really hard. I have no control over my body or my emotions. I too wanted that 'glow'- instead i got stuck with a face full of acne and ugly dry skin. My mom had to suppress looks of horror evrytime she looked at my face for fear i would burst out crying. And dont even get me started on the gas...

Anyways- sushi Q makes awesome sushi! They use fresh and good quality ingredients and is very reasonably priced. My favs are the prawn rolls (RM5). They make em really good and the prawns have a crunch to them that only comes from fresh good sized prawns. Cant say much bout their jelly fish salad (RM8 - i think) tho. It wasnt as crunchy as i expected them to be. They were a lil on the mushy side so avoid this. Was a lil disappointed coz this is one of my fav dishes of all time.

Sushi Q is on the 2nd floor, in between the New and Old wing.

Our next post will be about pasta zanmai!- stay tuned!

A nightmare on Old Klang Road- Homemade Soy Milk

2012-06-01T21:12:00.003-07:00

I made soy milk last night. Ok last night would be an understatement... I hand squeezed soy muck at 2 am after i got back from reading the news. I had wanted to blog about it sooner while the incident was still fresh in my mind- and hair but didn't have time nor energy to get to it till this morning.. I got on to making them as soon as we reached home. I was (in my mind ) channeling a Malaysian Nigella Lawson what with my full studio make up and all. But boy.. was I in for a surprise!

We had gone grocery shopping earlier in the day and i had grabbed almost a kilo of soy beans thinking it'd be a breeze to make them from scratch! Hubs was a lil excited but he's always happy when i blog- makes no difference to him if its about street burgers or beef bourguignon. I pre-soaked them at lunch and totally forgot that we would be busy the entire weekend and the recipe clearly states that they should be soaked 8-12 hours. By the time i got home last night they were all plump and fat after their 13 hour swim. It was between making soy bean milk at 3am- or throwing the entire thing out 2 days later. So i rolled up my sleeve and thought- how hard could this be??

I blended the beans at a 1:1 cup ratio and strained them with newly bought muslin cloth- ok fine i used baby napkins- but they were brand new. Ambitious me double layered the cloth to get a finer strain. After seeing the soy trickle down one drop at a time- i gave up and went back to single sheet straining. Even that was a nightmare wait. I admit i am a rather impatient person- but at 3am, i think i deserve to be. I scrapped the bottom of the cloth with a spoon hoping to hasten the process but it didn't help much. So i twisted the muck inside the cloth and made a little ball of it and squeezed hard. It was hard work but it did help make the draining process faster- for a while.

After my 5th attempt at doing this, thinking 'oh this is so easy!', the ball of muck i was squeezing- burst at the top and i had soy bean waste shooting out at all directions in my kitchen. Hubs came in upon hearing my screams and found me and my kitchen dripping with muck. I had them in my hair and on my carefully applied HD eyeshadow and god knows where else. After wiping some of it off, i threw away the rest of the un-blendered beans and muck- I had actually googled 'what to do with soy bean waste' prior to being having them splattered on my face- but after that incident i felt the only place they belong was in the bin.

I boiled the milk i had painstakingly extracted and despite the recipe calling for constant stirring- I was cleaning muck of the kitchen and myself- which turned out to be a big mistake. When i came back the whole pot was frothing and bubbling and made no attempt to slow down when i stirred it- and it boiled right over the top and onto my stove top. At this point i had long decided that i was NEVER making soy milk from scratch EVER again and had new found respect for Jenny Hong (THE soy bean lady)

An hour after i started, i sat down to a mug of 'too hot to drink soy milk' and Nigella was the last thing you would imagine, looking at my state. My eye make up had gone panda after numerous attempts of trying to get rid of grainy soy of it, I had huge clumps of more soy in my hair and more on neck and clothes.

I survived this with 2 mugs and a bottle of soy milk to call my own- and it doesn't even taste phenomenal. I mean its good- if u ignore the bit of waste u might find at the bottom of the mug but it tasted like soy milk. The kind i can get a huge bottle for 6 ringgit. Granted it tasted less diluted but i would trade in my soy milk for a minimally diluted one anytime of the day if it means i get out of it without beans in my face and hair.

So unless my husband asks for this on his deathbed- i am never again bringing soy beans into my kitchen for the purpose of making soy milk. If any of you are crazy enough to attempt making this- i suggest u cover you entire kitchen floor, cabinet, fridge, microwave, counter top and yourself before milking it ok. I didn't follow any exact recipe- just went with gut instinct

1 kg soy beans
Enough water for a 1:1 ratio with beans
Sugar to taste

1. Pre soak soy beans for 8-12 hours and blend with water
2. Strain using cloth strainer as the metal sieve isn't fine enough to hold muck
3. Boil with some pandan leaves if you have- but i didnt
4. DO NOT STOP STIRRING
5. Only add sugar once soy milk has come to a boil

So there you have it! A recipe for disaster! Let me know if any of you actually had the bravery to try making this ok! Have a happy weekend!!

Thai Sabye Sabye

2012-05-26T08:48:00.003-07:00

We went to Thai Sabye Sabye for the 1st time a couple of weeks back when hubs lost a bet we made on our baby's gender. Read here for my victory story. I told mama about our dinner there and she got excited listening to me rave about the egg yolk soft shelled crabs. So i decided to treat the family to mother's day dinner there. Papa was none too happy coz Old Klang Road spells -JAM to him in bold capital letters but had to agree coz it was mama's day!- plus my brother offered to drive so he relented.

We got there at about 830pm and there was only 3 other occupied tables- not sure what this means coz the last time we went on a weeknight the place was also almost empty. Not sure of their weekday lunch or weekend crowd but seeing that this place has been around since i was a kid- i think they're doing just fine.

We ordered the soft shelled crabs of course and the egg yolk fried sotong (yes were in a race to c who goes into cardiac arrest 1st), Thai Sabye Sabye fish, kangkung belacan, and mixed tomyam. Service was pretty quick but this was to be expected considering the near empty restaurant. They served pandan agar agar as appetizers which i found to be weird as this was normally served as dessert. But it was polished off in a matter of minutes by my ravenous brothers. I only caught a glimpse of it before starting a 2 minute conversation with my sister- in which time the jellies dissipated into thin air. Magic really.

The crabs were- as promised, delectable. If you are not watching your calorie intake, this dish is just perfect. Its creamy and delicious but can be a bit too rich for some people. Its also a tad oily but that only adds flavour to the dish. Ok im being biased coz i love it so much!

We ordered the sotong to be cooked the same way as the crabs and this turned out to be a mistake. While delicious- there was only so much oil and yolk the palette (and heart) could tolerate. After a while it got to be too cloying and we ended up with leftover crabs. But only coz the squid came first. I had the crabs for lunch the nx day and they were still awesome- albeit much less crunchy.

Look at that impatient hand- i think that was my dad's who was too far to be slapped.

The kangkung belacan was nothing to shout about but was still a welcomed addition as its spiciness help cut thru the cloying yolks. The fish could have done with more chili padi. It lacked zing but for non spicy eaters like mom n my sis- it was fine. But the siakap used was fresh and was perfectly fried.

I dont quite fancy the tomyam here. Its a lil too salty and thick for my liking. I prefer the light, super spicy, non-milky version like the one served at vichudda so i didnt finish my portion. But I dug out the condiments tho and found the prawns to be super fresh and crunchy- love!!

Hubs was super hungry when we arrived so please excuse the photos. Between wanting to take pictures quickly and slapping the occasional impatient hand grabbing for the dish- you really couldnt blame him.

She insisted on taking pictures after dinner so from then on- all our pictures was upside down

I tried the fried rice here once n it wasnt very good. But their lauk-lauk is pretty good so ill stick to that from now on.

Thai Sabye Sabye
G62, Ground Floor, Lucky Plaza
Old Klang Road, KL
Tel: 03-7981 2887

Coffee Cupcakes

2012-05-20T01:52:00.004-07:00

So i've been mulling over what to write for days, since i had promised to do a review on my own cooking. Thing is- the only thing that ive cooked so far since we started this blog has been mundane everyday cooking and the only photos i have are of crunchy fried anchovies with onions n potato and beef masak kicap- which are hardly worth blogging about.

But two nights ago, I woke up at 3am with one thing on my mind- coffee cupcakes. I could practically taste it at the back of my throat but at 3 im the morning there was nothing i could or wanted to do about it. Problem was, I only wanted ones that I made. And since we were doing nothing sunday, I thought why not make it today!

And voila!! Coffee cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting!! I have never been a fan of coffee- in fact drinking it gives me migrain. But i tried making these once about 2 years back and have been in love with it ever since- not coffee, just these cupcakes. But since getting married I've been baking less and less coz hubs isnt a fan of sweet bakes. Whenever I do bake, I share my bounty with the guard downstairs :)

These cupcakes are moist and fluffy and delish!! I've used this recipe to make vanilla, butterscotch and coffee cupcakes so far and they've all turned out awesome. I got this recipe off my sister. I think its from Peggy Porschen.

Here are the ingredients you need.

1 1/2 cups of flour (ive used multipurpose to cheap ol' wheat four- it works with anything)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking poweder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cups milk
Vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp of instant coffee diluted with warm water

1. Cream butter till fluffy, then add sugar.
- For ameteur bakers, by fluffy i mean till the butter turns a very light creamy yellow.

2. Add eggs bit by bit then add vanilla and coffee essence.
- Make sure eggs are at room temperature or risk having you batter split. Add them bit by bit in 4 batches at 30 second intervals.

3. Add flour slowly one tbsp at a time then add milk. (also at room temperature)
- Most recipes will ask you to sift the flour but im to ~~lazy~~ busy to bother and the cakes still turn out fine.

4. Bake them at 170 - 180 degrees (depending on your oven) for about 15 minutes or till it looks a promising shade of brown
- do the skewer test and if it comes out clean its done. I normally take it out as soon as its done coz i like them super moist.

Coffee frosting

250g butter
500 g icing sugar
1 tsp of instant coffee diluted with warm water. Throw all of these together into the mixer and blitz them at hi speed till it doubles in size. For normal vanilla frosting- just replace the coffee with vanilla essence.

Dont forget to cast your votes so we can pick where to go for our next review!

Our next review will be on Thai Sabye Sabye where we celebrated mothers day last week! Yum yumm!!

Mukha - Taman Tun Dr Ismail

2012-05-15T19:43:00.005-07:00

Do you like our new banner?? Isnt it puurrrdyyy??? My husband made it- coz i know as much about all this techy stuff as a potato. All i did was sat next to him and demanded this and that from strawberry prints to apple shadows. Very useful i am...

So last weekend we were guests on Bella on NTV7. I was invited by a producer friend who was looking for expecting mom's. I was pretty excited esp when they told me to bring hubster along for a surprise on the set. Of course i didnt tell him- which resulted in him wearing somthing I totally didnt agree with. But I couldnt argue when he went- "Bkn nye i yg nk masuk tv kot!". Next time listen to your wife ok?

I had fun on the show. Daphne really makes you feel at ease and truth be told I was not the least bit nervous. It felt to me like a group of friends sitting around discussing things we're goin thru in our pregnancy.

Anyways, after the show i was famished (when am i not??)! So we decided to try out Mukha at Taman Tun. I have read a couple of reviews of the place and since we we looking for something new- i thought why not!?

It was super duper hot day when we arrived. We both immediately placed orders for their root beer float which is RM 6 each before proceeding to check out their menu on the wall. None of those flimsy paper menu's here- no sir! Evrything they offer is written in chalk on the black wall which i thought was pretty cool.

The furniture at mukha is very vintage chic. Mismatched tables and chairs, gunny sacks with arabic words hanging on the walls, the odd guitar case in the corner and beautiful ornate lightings that looked like it was bought at some old market in Istanbul or Pakistan.

Hubsters attemp at taking artistic looking pics

The hot weather put me off anything too heavy or full of heaty spice. I settled for the steak sandwich (RM 13)while hubs ordered the chicken kebab (RM 13). While waiting i sneaked in nx door to get their dessert which everyone has been raving about. Unfortunately they were mostly sold out. I came just in time to c a girl get the last of their pavlova's :( I saw some meringue resting before being baked- but pavlova's take about 2 hours to bake so i knew i wont have a chance to try them this time around. I settled for their carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting (RM 2) and something called custard fluff (RM 4)which actually looked pretty much like ordinary japanese cheesecake in a muffin cup.

Never underestimate a boring looking cake

Hungry me ate dessert while waiting for our food to arrive. The carrot cupcake was moist and tasted a little too strongly of cinnamon. It didnt have any nuts in it which would have been nice. The cream cheese was good tho. The ordinary looking custard fluff blew my mind! It was really good! It felt like i was eating clouds or cotton with a dollop of custard in the middle. It was just mildly sweet and creamy without being too heavy.Twas just perfect!

Our food came and i was surprised to see purple sweet potato chips in my plate. The chips werent fried till crispy and were a little under seasoned. My beef was sandwiched in half a 'roti arab' and was pleasing to the tummy. It was just mildly spiced. I ate it doused in bbq n tobasco sauced and drizzled with the mint sour cream it came with. This is good for a light snack and kept me full for an hour before i was rummaging around for food again.

Hubsters chicken kebab had a tad more spice then my beef. But according to him it's too 'Malaysianised' compared to the one he had at Adelaide. This was served with ordinary pita bread. It was essentially a deconstructed pasar malam chicken kebab. The only difference is that the mayo it was served with had a touch or garlic. It was good nonetheless but you can get the same thing for RM2.50 at any pasar malam.

Overall the food at Mukha is just okay. However it's a great place to hang out and their desserts are definitely worth coming back for! Would love to be back for their famous red velvet and banofee pie!

Mukha,
15, Lorong Rahim Kajai 13
Taman Tun Dr Ismail,
600000 Kuala Lumpur

03-77322248
http://www.mukha.com.my/home/

Stay tuned for our next update from Jane's own kitchen!

Cendol truck at Damansara Uptown

2012-05-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

I think im beginning to balloon up... ive been eating like there's no tomorrow and have been getting comments that my face seemed larger then usual. Ive been having breathing difficulties at times- feeling tight at the chest and full at the stomach :p often after i have ~~three~~ a huge serving at mealtimes. Im waiting on my tummy to grow but my face seems to be beating my tummy to it.

I had 3 servings of mom's nasi dagang ~~in a row~~ and packed more for me to eat at home. Then on the way back to our place, i saw the cendol truck and HAD to have some cendol pulut- no less. Bear in mind i had had 3 servings of nasi dagang which is a half and half of rice and pulut. Bring on more pulut and santan!!!

This was my 1st time tasting this particular cendol eventhough i lived 1 minute drive away from it for 5 years!! And it was surprisingly super good!! Its been a long time since i had really good cendol. I dont quite fancy the over-rated teow chew version on Penang road. I find it to be too cloying and the gula melaka lacked oomphh. The one at Jonker Dessert in Melaka lacks richness in the santan while the gula melaka takes centre stage. Maybe if you paired Penang Road's santan with Jonker Desserts gula melaka you would have a winning combination but as of now- I would stick to the rojak at Penang Road and the noodles at Jonker Dessert.

But this cendol was really aromatic. Holding the bowl, i caught wafts of pandan aroma from the pulut it came with and I just knew it came from actual pandan leaves- none of that paste or bottled crap which tastes horribly aritificial. I dont usually eat the actual strips of cendol- but this one was just slightly salty making it perfect to slurp down with the santan + gula melaka concoction which was just the right combination. It had the perfect ratio of santan to gula melaka making it just a pleasure to drink up. My only gripe was that the red beans used was a little on the hard side. Ive always preferred kidney beans instead of the normal small adzuki beans which lacks sweetness and wont be tender if not thrown into a pressure cooker or cooked for 3 hours.

Despite not being able to breath normally for 2 hours after that, I didnt regret having it and in fact im still craving for it now. If ever you are in Damansara Uptown please do give this cendol a try. I promise you will not regret it! Just make sure you dont have it after you've had 3 servings of anything!

You will find this cendol at the address below! Its located in front of Brother Peter which is on the same row as Wondermilk.

My next update will be about Mukha in Taman Tun- stay tuned!!

Warung Satay & Cafe Mak Long

2012-05-10T04:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i was feeling more tired then usual, and knowing that i had to read the news that night put me off cooking completely. We decided to go to Mak Long's (my husband confidently called it Mak Ngah) which is a kampung house turned restaurant located on Old Klang Road. I was excited for satay as we had seen the man bbq-ing skewers of it by the house and decided to order it as an appetizer. Bad mistake. This filled me up too much that i only managed to down 10% of my rice.

We only ordered chicken satay with nasi impit. I found the satay to be a good balance of fatty skin and juicy meat but the peanut sauce was mediocre. It was increadilbily sweet to the point of tasting almost dessert- like and lacked spiciness which made it almost cloying to eat. It was also very diluted.

For mains i had Nasi goreng USA- something i had almost on a daily basis back in my uni days. I asked for the nasi goreng to be spicy and my sunny side up egg to be runny. The rice came looking a little promising compared to hubsters pale looking rice but it was anything but spicy. My 3 year old niece would have been able to eat it without breaking a sweat. The daging merah that it came with fared better.

Hubsters Nasi goreng padprik was just okay but his pale rice was tasteless. I also ordered the ice kacang which came with plenty of condiments i didnt like. I dont like the jelly like thingies that more often then not lacked flavour, and i also didnt like that they added crystalized nutmeg to it. I did however like the red bean paste that tasted home made. It was a tad sweet but i asked for extra ice to be added and that fixed it.

Service here has its ups and downs. The satay came pretty quickly and our food came 20 minutes upon arrival which was acceptable. But i noticed some tables where the diners had finished their meals before some dishes arrived.

Overall the food at Mak Long has its hit and misses. I would go back for the satay- sans sauce and would probably try other dishes if im too lazy to cook again. But i wont order nasi grg USA again. Tonight is leftover night so again- im not cooking! :D

Warong Satay Mak Long
Tel: 012-2434866
Located along Jalan Puchong (Batu 6) after turning in from Old Klang Road.

Nasi Ambang- Pasar Malam Taman Tun

2012-05-07T17:37:00.003-07:00

While we were at the park with na over the weekend, mama called and sed she was at the tmn tun pasar malam and asked if i wanted anything. I told her i wanted nasi ambang. I had it once a couple of months ago and loved it. I had it again 2months into my pregnancy (this time from another vendor) and almost threw up. The fried chicken that came with it was too heavy on the corriander seeds and till now- i cannot stand anything with corriander seeds in it. But the one from the tmn tun night market is great.

Nasi Ambang is a javanese dish and is basically white rice wrapped or served in banana leaf and is eaten with coconut serunding, indonesian sambal goreng with tempe, fried noodles and most times a meat dish- i had it with fried chicken. There was also a bit of sambal belacan on the side but i suspect this is just a Malaysian addition. Each accompaniment tastes bland on its on- but together they create such a delicious medley of flavours.

This rice is normally served at kenduri's. It will be laid out on layers of banana leaves in a huge round tray and 4/5 people will share this meal togather, in the same tray, with their hands. I find this a little... unhygenic? Ok fine i think its downright gross but u have the option of actually packing it inside the banana leaf to be enjoyed at home. This dish is best eaten with the hands and a little bit of everything goes into one bite.

My brother called while they were there and was being very tactful in explaining to me that the nasi ambang stall wasnt open. He was being all gentle because he was afraid i might burst into tears if i didnt get my nasi ambang. Read this to get a better understanding of why my family walk on eggshells when it comes to me and food.

Turns out- they WERE open! They were just so swarmed with people (so you KNOW they're good) that mom didnt see them! So i did get my rice and they were saved from having to deal with any mama drama's- this time anyway :)

Lotus Restaurant Jalan Gasing

2012-05-06T06:23:00.001-07:00

Ok this blog is up and running! yeay!! But truth be told- had it not been for hubsters persistance, it would definitely still have been just an idea at the back of my mind. Being asked to come up with a mission statement for a blog at 1 in the morning was not fun!! And i would much rather get on my butt and start this rather then have him nag at me about it every chance he gets. Mission statement for a blog??? Control freak muchhh??

Anyway! My first review will be about Lotus Restaurant in Jln Gasing. This place has been around since pretty much forever! I remember coming here as a child everytime after a lunch of banana leaf rice at Raju's. Funnily enough- we never ate here. We only came post meal for our dose of indian sweets after a heavy indian lunch.

I've passed by this place with jj numerous times and today i told him im not cooking coz im too ~~lazy~~ tired from ~~doing nothing~~ running around after na- whom we have for the weekend.

We arrived pretty early at 10 past 12 and the place was already buzzing with customers. We ordered 2 sets of banana leaf rice, 2 fried chicken and a plate of fried bittergourd. Service was prompt and instead of bringing around the usual tin containers of various curries and dhal- they ploped a bowl of curry on our table. This turned out to be fish curry and it was abysmal to say the least. One of the worst indian curries ive had. I asked for the chicken curry and that fared better tho not much.

The veggie dishes that came with the meal was pretty standard. They served snake gourd cooked with dhal, stir fried cabbage with grated coconut and cucumber raita which tasted of neither yogurt nor vinegar so maybe it was just simply cut cucumbers?

The bittergourd tho was a different story- it was awesome! Its hard to find indian restaurants nowadays that make good crispy and non-bitter deep fried bitter gourd- but this one was delish!! And at Rm 3.50 per plate I thot it was pretty reasonable.

The fried chicken was nothing to shout about and was rather small. It was just half a quarter chicken and at Rm 6 per piece- i thot it was a cut-throat.

The total bill came up to Rm 31.50 for the 2 of us- na and i shared my rice and chicken. I thot it was rather pricey for banana leaf rice considering i can have a better tasting meal at Sri Paandi for less but i guess dining in an airconditioned restaurant has its price.

I probably will not return for the food- but i will definitely be back for their sweets. I would blog about it had i not almost finished it :) maybe next time?