: : Granny's Cooking ~ Ketola : :

You know, I sort of forgot to do some updates last night, caught up with work and all. By the time I remember, it was already too late and I need to sleep.

So, what do we have tonight? Well, since the theme seems to be step-by-step recipes, I have another one. Stir fried ketola with egg! Yum! A favourite home cook food and one that my sister loves so much when we were growing up.



How does a ketola look like? Well, it's the green vegetable on the top portion of picture. The bottom portion shows some four-angled beans @ kacang botol which we had with the sambal belachan posted earlier.

First thing is to completely remove the skin of the ketola. Don't think a slicer will work so you'll need to use a knife. Slice off the sharp corners first and then remove the rest of the skin. Granny had already cut the ketola into smaller pieces so I didn't have the chance to take a picture then.



Heat up some oil and stir fry with some chopped pieces of garlic. When the garlic has softened, add in the chunky ketola portions. Make sure that the fire is not too hot else it will burn the ketola.



Continue to stir the ketola now and again. A lot of water will come out of the vegetable.



This is how it will most likely look when the water has come out but with less water. Granny added about 1/4 of a cup of water in to prevent the ketola from burning. Add in some salt and a pinch of MSG to bring out the flavour.



Now, we add the secret ingredient : EGG! Somehow, the egg makes the whole dish taste so much better.



Quickly turn the whole mixture to mix the egg evenly.



Now, wasn't that a simple dish to do? :)

So, what is a ketola? Well, after searching for it on Google, I click on this site and found out it was a angled loofah! haha! Yep, we're eating bath sponges. Young ones mind you. :)

: : Granny's Cooking ~ Wantan Soup : :

Thought I might not have time to put this up but managed to finish some stuff. Right, here is how Granny made wantan soup. Pretty simple and all. She uses minced pork as the filling but you can substitute it with other mince meat or even fish or squid.



First, Granny chopped up the pork and minced it using a cleaver. Then, she added about 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and some pepper to the mixture. She did not add in any cornflour to the mixture but you might want to add some if you're using fish/squid. It's up to you.



Mix mix mix mix mix.



Then, take a piece of wantan skin and put in approximately one teaspoon. You can add more meat into the filling if you want to. Wantan skin can be kept for ages in the freezer.



There! Approximately 1 teaspoon.



Wet the edges of the wantan skin so that the edges will stick together. Just the edges will do. Fold it diagonally in half and then in gather the rest of the edges.



The finished product. However, we're going to make some wantan soup.



Boil some water in a pot. Once it's boiling happily, add in some chicken stock. Granny was using the chicken granules from Maggi. She did try using the liquid chicken stock from Maggi but that had a funny aftertaste. However, it went well when added to the rice cooker to make chicken rice! Yum!



Once the water is boiling again (after adding in the chicken stock), add in the wantan pieces.



When the wantan pieces are floating, you know that it's thoroughly cooked. When you're ready to serve the soup, add some chopped spring onions. If you add in the spring onions while it's boiling, it will turn yellow.

Good luck cooking! :)

: : The eGullet Culinary Institute : :

Wow! This looks like so much fun. They also have a lot of postings on step by step recipes. With pictures galore!!

Check it out.

: : Gematriculator : :





I think some people might think otherwise.

via Caleb

: : Selamat Berbuka Puasa : :

I know, I'm late. I'm always late. Still, better late than never.

Selamat Berbuka Puasa to all the Muslim readers. If need by, can boycott this blog for a month. :) If not, well, read it only at night. I only update at night after 10 p.m. anyways.

Cheerio.

: : Granny's Cooking - Fried Fish : :

Granny cooked a lot of stuff over the weekend and I managed to take a lot of pictures. However, got some other things to do tonight so you have to make do with one picture of Fried Fish.



First, she fried the fish. Then she fried the strips of ginger and onions. Then she fried them together for a short while. And that how we ended up with the picture above.

Tomorrow, how to make wantan soup step by step!

: : Sambal Belachan : :

Who can ever forget the aroma of sambal belachan? You either love it or hate it although most Asians just loooooooooovvvvvveeeeeee the taste and the smell will trigger your tastebuds instantaneously. If you hate it, you'll probably start experiencing headaches and feeling like you're suffocating.

Granny was making some for the Pipeman to have lunch with. She also had some kacang botol @ four angled beans as well so that was our lunch.



First of all, find some belachan. Which one is the best? Have absolutely no idea. It's a trial and error thing. The belachan found in Sarawak is totally different from the ones found in West Malaysia and Indonesia. I do not know what's in those ones but if someone knows, please do drop me a line in the Comments section. Thanks. The main ingredients for belachan are the baby shrimps/prawns that is used to make cincaluk. (Juveniles, as Carol puts them.) The shrimps are salted in a wooden container with sea salt under a hot hot sun under the moisture within the paste is gone. Then, the mixture is pounded together. Then dried under the sun again to remove all the moisture. It is later packed in a square container and later cut into pieces. Sometimes it is squarish, other times it's round. You can freeze them in the fridge for ages and it will not go back. I recommend putting them into some sort of air-tight container preferably glass else your whole fridge is going to stink.



Of course, one needs to have some chillis. What is sambal belachan without some hot hot chillis? She also prepared from dried prawns. You can also add in some chilli padi @ bird chillis/Thai chillis but go easy on them. They will flame your tongue completely. Another alternative is to use dried chillis but those are seriously tough to pound away.



Granny put all the belachan pieces and cut chillis into the mortar to be pounded using the pestle. She added in the chilli seeds as well as they will add in the spicy taste into the sambal.



We put the mortar onto the floor so that the sink doesn't get deformed. The pounding must be done slowly else bits and pieces of the chilli and belachan will start flying everywhere. Continue pounding until all the chilli seeds have been blended in with the chilli and the belachan.



Next, we added in the dried prawns and pounded away. You can substitute the dried prawns with freshly cooked prawns.



This is how it look like finally. Offered to help Granny to pound it until the paste became very smooth but she said never mind. So okay. We squeezed one lemon into this paste and mixed it evenly.



And, this is how it finally looked like. Granny put some into a small bottle to be put away into the freezer to keep for my Mum's vist in December.

My Dad likes to use a blender because it's faster but the chilli seeds does not get pounded away. There is a rumour going around that chilli seeds can cause appendicitis but I'm not sure about that. Granny believes it so she will always use the pestle and mortar.

That's it for today. Nite nite!!

: : Guestmap : :

I decided to change my Guestbook to a GuestMap instead. Cool isn't it?

To leave a message, click and drag the arrow to the location where you're at and leave a message. At least now I'd have an inkling of where mum-mum readers are located. Unless one seriously clicks on the north pole or Bermuda Triangle. :p So be honest where you're at! :p

: : Snacks in the afternoon : :

Knock knock on my bedroom door.

Granny : Nah! Some makan (food) from pipeman! He buy so much food wor!



Looks good, innit? Believe me, it tasted read good.

: : RSS Feed : :

Hmm... not sure whether this is working. Have put up two RSS feed for this side : Blogmatrix (which hasn't been updated for 2 weeks) and RSSify at Wytheville Community College.

Well, we'll see how it goes. Tell me if it works.

Update : I'm taking down the Blogmatrix RSS feed as it seems to be taking a long time to update. The other one is better. Link is just below the GeoURL link. Look for the icon.

: : Something different ~ Healing Iraq : :

Totally not food related but still an interesting read. A blog about postwar Iraq from an Iraqi living in Baghdad. Check it out.

via LT Citizen Smash

We all need to know that there is hope in a country after a war.

: : A note in the Guestbook : :

I had a note from Terry Andrews in my guestbook requesting for some feedback. Although he has asked me to email him my replies, thought it might be a good idea to share it with everyone in this blog.

There are 8 different flavours of drinks Chrysanthemum Tea, Grass Jelly, Ice Green Tea, Ice Lemon Tea, Lemon Barley, Lychee, Soya Bean, Winter Melon. could you help me to match to the Asian food it best goes together with.... below
Char Kway Teow, Chicken Rice, Fishball Noodle, Laksa, Roti Prata, Satay. Could you help me to match the the 6 Asian food to the 8 drinks they best go with.

Hmm... as a general guideline, we Asians don't usually match the drink to the food. There are no rules on drinking Asian drinks to match the food. At least, to me, that is. We usually select drinks based on personal preference or another reason i.e. sore throat, heatiness, chill, trying new things.

If you seriously want to get a better taste from the food, I would recommend that you drink hot Chinese tea when eating Chinese dishes. For one thing, the Chinese tea is believed (and I definitely do) to clean the taste out of the month after each huge Chinese dishes especially when one is eating a lot of food in a typical Chinese restaurant. Hot Chinese Tea will also sooth a sore throat and even coughs. When I was suffering through a bout of bronchitis, Chinese tea helped me to get through a meal without having to cough every few seconds. But, it must be taken hot and not cold.

So, let's go through the list one by one :

Chrysanthemum Tea
This is drink that is known for cooling the body down i.e. it removes the heatiness from one's body. It's very fragrant, coming from the Chrysanthemum flower and is a very light and refreshing tea. You can find it in any Chinese Medicinal Shop and in the supermarkets as well. You can find it in the form of flowers, powdered form, drink can and as a packet drink. I remember that this was one of my favourite drinks during childhood days because it was always sweet. It was also pretty neat (to a child that is) to make Chrysanthemum drinks from powder. The powder pellets are first dissolved in some hot water and then top up with cold water. The product is from China and is recognisable by it's yellow tin with red letterings. They have also started selling them in small instant packages. Here is a link to some pictures of the Chrysanthenum plant.

Grass Jelly
Is it Grass Jelly or Glass Jelly drink? If you mean cincau @ black semi-transparent jelly, then it's definintely a delicious drink on it's own. The jelly can be bought at any supermarket or grocery store and even at the wet market. It comes in the form of a rectangular block and cutting it up into small strips for drinks can be pretty messy. If you ask for the cincau drink at a coffee shop or restaurant, you will get a drink with this black jelly with some brown sugar and water added in. Grass Jelly is also one of the many ingredients used to make ais kacang @ iced nut drinks. You can now find the cincau drink in drink cans by Yeos, Seasons and other drink manufacturers. Honestly, I prefer the Seasons brand when it comes to drinking it out of a can but the freshly made one is better.

Ice Green Tea
Green Tea seems to be the IN thing today. You find it in drinks, cakes, mooncakes, kuihs, snacks, etc. Heck, you can even find a toothpaste with Green Tea inside it. The Yeos iced green tea in a can is definitely very nice and it's the one that is served when you go and eat at a coffee shop. Goes extremely well when mixed with JD and Chivas Regal. It definintely soothes the throat and relaxes the mind. If one takes hot green tea in a Japanese restaurant, you'll find that it quickly cools the Wasabi effect fast. Why? Well, I was trying to find a link someone online but was too lazy to filter out so many search hits. Anyway, all I know is that it works and works well.

Ice Lemon Tea
A refreshing drink that is found throughout Asia. However, the powdered version has become increasingly popular because of convenience sake. I would recommend you ask whether it's the real tea version or the powdered one. I try to avoid drinking the powdered version because of the food colouring inside it. Yep, you might not be drinking real tea but something else. Lemon tea can also be taken hot and helps to sooth the irritable sore throat.

Lemon Barley
This is an interesting drink and it tastes all the more better when the drink is made from fresh barley. I think the canned drink version is a bit too strong. It has both the sweet, starchy barley flavour with the tanginess and citrus flavour of a lemon. It is another cooling drink which will cool one's body down during a hot and humid day.

Lychee
Now, it's drinks like these that give coffee shop owners a huge profit margin. It is just the lychee with some syrup and water added to the drink. It can be done easily at home by opening a can of lychee, pouring the fruit and some of the syrup in the tin into a glass filled with water. Served with ice and it makes a delicious drink or even an after dinner dessert. My preference is the mata kuching rather than the lychee as I do not really like the skin from the seed that is still attached to the flesh. I hate bitter stuff in my fruits. The skin of the seed does not stick to the flesh of Mata Kucing because the seed itself has an extremely smooth and polished surface.

Soya Bean
It's an amazing drink and again, a childhood favourite. Imagine drinking milk that is very sweet and yet not so ... errr ... thick-tasting? Fresh soya bean milk is still the best and can be found in any coffee shop. It's usually bottled in used Guinness bottles (don't worry, it's been cleaned before hand) for the price of RM2. Cheaper than the canned drink version and probably a great deal healthier. Ever tried fresh soya bean milk with brown sugar? It's awesome! Had it in Petaling Street, KL. A health drink? All Asian drinks are health drinks and people have been drinking them for years and years.

Winter Melon
A definite cooling drink to cool the heated body. It's very sweet but definintely refreshing. The burst of flavour that pops into one's tongue after taking the sip is so... HMMMM!!!! Also known as Air Kundur, it is a drink that is very very dark brown to the point that it looks black until diluted. Again, the fresh version is better than the canned drink version.

Well, Terry, I hope that answers your question. I know it's not much of an answer but is there really an answer to that question? There are a lot of Asian type of drinks out there which I haven't even covered. Perhaps the readers would like to contribute? Feel free to leave a comment.

List of canned drinks Yeos.

: : Lim Hok Ann Seafood Restaurant, Buntal : :

BJ SMS-ed me earlier this afternoon to say that Bernard was back in town for the weekend. So, we went off to have dinner together with BJ's cousins and uncles but this time at Buntal, a small fishing village near Santubong. Buntal is famous for it's seafood dishes because of the fishing village there. Sounds corny, doesn't it? Anyway, it's usually a 40-45 minute drive from Kuching to Buntal but as usual, Wena was speeding and cutting lanes like mad. So, we reached there with plenty of time to spare and managed to find a good parking space right in front of the restaurant.



We went to eat at Lim Hok Ann Seafood Restaurant. The photo above was a snapshot from a framed aerial view of Buntal Village by a photographer named George Chiew. The restaurant is the one in the middle of the picture with the blue roof and the platform that is extended out towards the sea.



The front of the entrance. Very different from the time I went there 7 years ago. It's cleaner now than it was before. One can see the kitchen as one walks through the restaurant to get to the sitting area. There's even a signage in the kitchen that says 'Jagalah Kebersihan @ Maintain Cleanliness'.





Some signage in the restaurant. Most restaurants and coffeeshops in Malaysia will get their signage sponsored by beverages and not necessarily alcoholic ones. Sometimes, it's also sponsored by food companies such as Lee Fah Mee, Yeos, Nestle and others.





The restaurant was really packed tonight with many families going out for dinner. Think there were easily 30-40 tables within the covered area. No one was sitting in the open air section as it was drizzling and later it rained quite steadily for awhile. And, as in most Chinese restaurants, it was VERY noisy. Everyone was chattering at once, raising their voices and childrean running around everywhere. There's also the fact that when one is walking on the wooden planks of the platform, the whole restaurant starts to vibrate.

Right, the food pictures.



We ordered some fried fish i.e. ikan mancung @ ngor hu. English name? I'm at a stumped at the moment. Well, the fish was deep fried until it was very crispy and we squeezed some fresh lime all over the fish to give it a slightly citrus flavour. The fish tasted better this way, at least to us. Considering that it was a fried fish, it wasn't too oily. Considering that it was the 1st dish that came out of a very very busy kitchen, we ate everything.



We had butter prawns next. Done to perfection i.e. the prawns were very crispy and there was definitely a buttery taste with spices inside it. Very very very tasty. One way to eat the prawns is to eat it completely with the skin on. One has to chew for a little while but it's fairly easy to do since the skin is already thinner from the frying. But still, one must be careful so as not to have bits and pieces of the skin or tentacles stuck in one's gum or between one's teeth. Great source of calcium though. :)



As usual, we all had meidin but this time prepared in oyster sauce without the belachan. Tasted great.



After a 10 min break, the crab came. It was fried with egg and spring onions and was slightly spicy. Not too spicy hot but it was definintely piping hot. Wah! Very nice to eat during a rainy night. So, we dug in with our hands and ended up with mountains of crab shells on the table.



Now what is a seafood dinner without some oyster omelette? :) My 4th picture of the famous oyster omellete but this one wasn't so crispy but seriously tasted more like an egg omelette with oyster inside. Still, it was pretty tasty. And the plate was emptied by everyone present.



Since there was no ampal available, we had some kerang @ clams. Not my favourite as the taste is too strong for me but the others like it. The aroma wafting from the plate was very nice though. :)



A very simple dish : baby corn cooked in oyster sauce with some carrot garnishings. One thing for sure : oyster sauce makes a vegetable dish taste extremely good.

Well, that's all for the seafood dinner. Felt stuffed. Extremely stuffed. So was the other 8 people present.

Now, is this a halal place? Well, they do not serve pork dishes but if you wanted some Chinese wine in the dish, they will oblige you.

How to get there? Well, just head on down to Damai until you come to a T-junction with a sign that says 'Kampung Buntal @ Buntal Village'. Turn right and head all the way down the road until you reach the end. Lim Hok Ann is located right at the end of the road. What's the best time to go? Definitely before 7 pm else you would have to wait a long time for your food to come.

: : Aphrodisiacs : :

Lone comments at his posting :

Hey Lucia, you could get together with Wena of mum-mum fame and set up such a one somewhere in Penang. Could I suggest in the Sg Ara area where this place called "Cherry Blossoms" is to be found. Oh yes, the latter is a ala Thai and not Nippon restaurant.

Aduh mak!

Then again, it lead it me this intersting site about InterCourses : an aphrodisiac cookbook. Nice pics! Luv the one with the grapes.

: : Supper at Central Park : :

No, I did not suddenly board a Concorde and flew off to NY to have supper in Central Park. Rather, went for a late night supper on Friday night with Melvin as didn't have much dinner. Not so stressed out today but somehow, it's not easy to get rid of stress within one's body.

After much debate, we decided to settle for teochew porridge. Had this at a small little coffee shop called Central Park Corner. Easiest to spot it is to look for a signboard that says Jollibee. Note : NON-HALAL food.



Everything for RM9.50. Not sure whether it was too much or too little.

Upper left plate
Belly pork cooked in red wine (I think) and soy sauce. Also with kacang botol @ four angled bean cooked in spicy chilly belachan. Phew! It was hot!

Upper right plate
Pickled lettuce from China. Had half a tin between the two of us. Always a firm favourite when eating porridge.

Lower left plate
Veggies are baby kailan cooked with oyster sauce and some sliced Carrots. We also had some fried fish cake and fish balls.

Lower right bowl
The teochew porridge lah!

Teochew Porridge is not thick congee porridge with small rice granules but rather the big rice granules served with a selection of side dishes. Kind of like a buffet style of eating.

Best Teochew Porridge place I've had the pleasure of eating at was at this shop near the Pudu Jail in KL. Wah! A lot of variety of food to choose from and they're open till very very very late at nite. Unfortunately, non-halal.

: : Kuaci : :

Reai says: carved pumpkins the other day
Myremi says: hehehheh
Myremi says: kewl
Myremi says: messy though
Reai says: only way to get kuaci mah
Myremi says: hahahhahahahhha
Myremi says: u serious ah?
Reai says: yalar
Reai says: we saved the seeds
Reai says: and he's going to roast them
Myremi says: oohhhh

Guess she's desperate in the US. Kuaci is the seeds that Asians eat. Usually white in colour. Gotta take some pics of kuaci soon.

Idea from meesh. :)

: : Sweets : :



Reading Josh's postings on coconut slices made me dig through my library of unused pictures to find this coconut sweet. This is one additive sweet. Remember the light brown sweets that is found in school canteens? I'm amazed my teeth never fell out.

The sweet above was bought from the Tan Kim Hock shop in Malacca but can be found in any sweet shop in Malaysia. Even in the supermarkets, one can find huge packets of this coconut sweet.

Yeah yeah, the picture is blurry. Picture was taken when I was first learning how to use my digicam. So, took it too near. :p

: : You say po-tae-to, I say po-ta-to : :

Granny : Wei! Come down and eat dinner! Got sweet potato lah! Very fresh fresh somemore.





It's a better day today. My worry has left me a bit so feeling less stressed out. Still, got some more things to do within the next few days i.e. in one weeks time. Another dateline. Hmm....

Still, coming home to an excitable old lady is pretty...err... cute? She had so much to say about the sweet potato the neighbours gave her.

Very fresh, hoh!
Just dig one.
From kebun (farm) in Bau.
Very sweet lah!
Pipeman can only finish one and half lah! His kuli (workers) also!

Well, one thing she sometimes do is add small cut pieces of the boiled sweet potato into the rice cooker. Wah! The rice became so fragrant and sweet. Not to mention that one gets to eat the sweet potatoe as well. Yum!

: : News : :

The Good

My application for Goggle AdSense has been approved today. Yippee!

The Bad

No registration of clicks yet until my site has been indexed at Google AdSense. Sigh. Oh well. Gotta have patience. Still, I'm amazed that I'm on. Wow!

Stressful day at work.

And, no comfort food! :( Wish I had the following -



Soya bean milk! Perks me up. This one is supposedly freshly bottled. Not too sweet too. However, a friend did mentioned that he didn't think it was that fresh as he tasted something "weird" in it. Ah well!



Remember the miniature cupcakes found in the market? Haven't had these in a long long time. Wah! Patty-Cake is my stockist. Hee hee! Gosh! It's light and fluffy. Lighter than the muffins found in the bakeries.

Hmm... maybe will pop down now and have something to eat. Still haven't eaten dinner. Too stressed out.

: : Expert Food Court : :

Was so busy the past few days that I didn't have time to go out of the office for lunch. So, had to dig up my archives of unused pictures to see if I had anything interesting to post. Found a few pictures.

The following pics were taken at Expert Food Court, Tabuan Jaya. Went there for lunch 2 weeks ago on the day I flew back to Miri.



Pascale decided to have the crispy chicken and onion rings with her bowl of rice. Well, the rice is equal to one bowl. ;p Something western (the chicken and onion rings) and something Asian (the rice). Looked pretty good.



I had the fried fish with rice. Luckily it came with some thousand island sauce which helped a lot. The fish wasn't fresh but as long as I didn't have a quesy stomach after the first bite, then still have to finish the meal.



We all shared a bowl of spicy dumplings. It's was wantan with chilli oil poured over it. The wantan filling was chopped mangkuang and mince pork. Again, so so.

Now I remember it wasn't that an appetizing meal. Hmmm... oh well! Had a great dinner that nite in Miri!