Dinner Plan

We decided to cook meals everyday from now on. It has been 4 days since we have home-cooked lunch and dinner. Hmm... deciding what to cook everyday is not as easy as I thought it would be.. especially we want to be as healthy as possible. Luckily, we can ask google for everything :-D It's a bit tiring but it's a good opportunity for us to learn more healthy cooking and stay healthy, hopefully :-)

So what we had cooked so far? Our menu was...
Sat:   ABC Soup
         Honey Baked Chicken
         Stir-Fry Beansprout (Tau Miu)
         Pan-fried Sole Fillet with Butter Lemon Chives Sauce
         MaPo Tafu
         Steam Yau Mak
Sun:  Beet Root Soup
         Meatless Bolognese Spaghetti
Mon: Old Cucumber soup
         Apple Cider Vinegar Baked Chicken
         Steam Yau Mak
         3-Cup Claypot Mushroom with Egg Tofu
         Pan-fried Sole Fillet with non-spicy Salsa sauce  
         Brocolli
Tue:  Snow Pear Soup
         Basic Baked Chicken Drummet with Carrot
         Tomato Scrambled Egg
         Claypot Bitter Gourd Chicken
         Brocolli

80% of our menu were first attempts. :-p
We have some misses, and some hits. Apple Cider Vinegar Baked Chicken turned out to be too tangy for cw. The Butter Lemon Chives Sauce was on the sour side because I used too much lemon juice and not enough butter. Stir-frying beansprout with big fire quick stir yields a much drier version which is too dry.

This is also our first time using sole fillet, turned out to be better and easier to handle than dory fillet we always use in the past. Clayport mushroom was nice and easy to cook. Clayport bitter gourd was nice too, but the bitter gourd is still more bitter than I thought after the salt treatment (rub salt on flesh and wash away). Snow pear soup is quite sweet, and I was told I could have add more salt to reduce the sweetness :p Beet root soup is different from I imagine, as it was not a pink soup, it was a clear soup. Tasted like white radish soup but better. We will definitely cook it again.

Pan-Fried Sole Fillet
Coat fillet with flour sprinkled with ground black pepper & salt. Add butter to pan, and add the fillet. Pan fry until fillet is slightly brown on both side.

Honey Baked Chicken
Marinate chicken with honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper & salt overnight. Bake in preheat oven, on bed of onion, at 230C for 35 min. Remove onion
Note: the chicken was a bit burned on surface, hence the total time may be reduced.

3-Cup Claypot Mushroom with Egg Tofu
Heat sesame oil in claypot, add ginger & onion. Stir-fry until fragrant, add mushroom & carrot, stir-fry briefly. Add light soy sauce, shao hsing wine, tauchu paste & mushroom water. Stir evenly, and bring the sauce to boil. Add in egg tofu, then cover the lid and let simmer for 5 min.
Note: Spring onion, dark soy sauce and sugar were omitted from original recipe, added tauchu paste and egg tofu instead.

Claypot Bitter Gourd Chicken
Marinate the chicken with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper. Heat sesame oil in claypot, add crashed fermented black bean and tauchu paste. Stir-fry quickly (tend to get burned very fast). Add garlic, ginger, chicken and bitter gourd. Stir-fry until chicken no longer pink. Add a bowl of water, sugar and dark soy sauce. Bring to boil, add shao hsing wine, cover the lid and let simmer for 15 min.

Non-spicy Salsa Sauce
Stir-fry onion and garlic in pan. Add cubed tomato, cubed carrot and stir-fry until all ingredients are soft. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Aprilsnow 四月雪 - 立春: The First Day of Spring

Aprilsnow 四月雪 - 立春: The First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of the spring season. That means spring is already here, before the Chinese people celebrates their Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival.

The blog shown in the title link has a nice and brief mention on today's significance to the Chinese.

One also needs to be aware of the significance of the first day of spring coming before the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, but the Chinese Zodiac sign is actually based on Solar Terms. A brief explanation can be found here.

So what this means is that babies that are born today onwards are under the Tiger sign! This is before the Chinese New Year itself. It can be somewhat confusing. But as long as one keeps in mind that Chinese New Year may not be same day as the first day of spring, then knowing which Chinese Zodiac sign will be less confusing..

:)

The Baker's Cottage

More often than not, we usually buys bread to make our breakfast on the weekdays.
As is the norm with other Malaysians, the bread can be eaten in many ways, such as using any combination of jam, margarine, butter, kaya and many others, not forgetting the many types of sandwich that can be had.


Gardenia bread was our automatic choice most of the time, either the white bread or the high fibre variety. We did tried the butterscotch version twice and found it quite nice, but it's rather small-sized compared to others.


Lately though, we have discovered an excellent alternative to the Gardenia bread. It is the English bread sold by The Baker's Cottage. The bread is softer and sweeter than Gardenia's Butterscotch bread. And most definitely bigger sized. It comes sliced thickly, so we slice them in half to make our breakfast.


It's now our preferred bread   :)

Google Chrome Extensions: Favorite Doodle

Google Chrome Extensions: Favorite Doodle

Ever wished you could see your favorite Google logo (called Doodle) again and again, whenever you open the Google Search page?

Now you can!

A Google employee in her 20% 'free' time had created an extension for Google Chrome to allow you to do just that.

Ain't it awesome or what?

Check out the extension if you're using Chrome.

The extension works for most common TLDs.

Cocky and Arrogant BlogShop

Here's a true experience that one of et's colleague, H, went through. H is quite fond of shopping online, as there are some items that blogshops can offer lower prices than the traditional boutique stores and shopping malls.


Take a look at the exchange of messages between H and that particular blogshop owner.

Remembered I said I ordered a legging from some online shop named http://the bend and snap.blogspot.com  on Wednesday?

She told me to take size L so I did. I told her to do a COD on Thursday at oneU anytime from 9am - 6pm. Then I'll hand her the money on the spot.

And she never show up or sms so I emailed her yesterday at 5 sth.. n her reply was like this:

if tom can ? are u working in boutique ?

 Then I never reply liao. Too much, she thought I sit here waiting for her all day ar?

 This morning, she sent me this sms:

Her: Babe, cn I just post it? I think I dn have time to cod atm. So busy with final work. :)

Me: Hey, just cancel it. Don't want anymore. Gd luck in final.

Her: Ok. Ur name and details will be banned n put in back out byers list. Thanx

Me: Excuse me, u were the one who backed out from the COD trade . Have some business ethic.

Her: Im a office working person ok. Back out COD never listed in trade matter. Anyway, I think bttr you cancel it cz I dn have XL and L size atm. It just wasting my time to find it. Thanx

Me: Well you just ruined a business and your reputation. Dun promise if u cant make it, glad I didn't buy it from ya. Have a nice day.

Her: I dnt thnk so. Stil many buyers waiting for my service. Thanx too. Daa




Arrogant shithead.

Horror KTZ Restaurant experience

This is a true story related by et of her colleague's experience in KTZ Restaurant.


First of all, KTZ Restaurant is a chain of restaurants that one can find in KL. KTZ stands for "Kee Tak Zek", pronounced as "Kei Tak Sek" in Cantonese which means 'Remember to Eat'.


About a week and a half ago, her colleague, let's call her P, went to the KTZ restaurant in 1 Utama for lunch. The KTZ there is very popular among shoppers as it offers an extensive range of food and drinks, coupled with very competitive economical prices.


P ordered one of the noodle selection from menu. About halfway eating her bowl of noodles, she found not one, but FOUR worms in her soup!!!  Talk about nasty!


P proceeded to summon the waitress, who without nary a word, took the bowl into the kitchen. Some moments later, she came back to P's table saying "It's not my fault", and left the table. Without an apology. Without an explanation. Without even a replacement meal. Without any hint of customer service ethos. Nothing.


You can imagine P's rage.


KTZ has now been banned by P and the rest of her colleagues. Having been patron to the restaurant for at least once a week for the past year and half, this is a strong statement for the KTZ restaurant in 1U.

The excellent Kura Japanese restaurant in One World Hotel.

Due to the disappointment of the Kissaten restaurant in Jaya One the previous day that I wrote about here, I wanted to make it up for et by bringing her to the Kura restaurant in One World Hotel. Now Kura is what one would definitely be referring to as a Japanese restaurant. Far more authentic than Kissaten the faux Japanese restaurant.

We had the Snow Crab sukiyaki, Garlic Fried Rice, and a Sushi Bento that comes with grilled chicken. All 3 selections were really good, especially the superb Garlic Fried Rice. We were totally satisfied with the food we had in Kura, and left without doubts that we’ll definitely be going there again in the future.

I wanted to write on how good the food was in Kura, but I think I’ve used enough superlative terms describing its food to convey the message. As for its ambience, Kura uses the room concept, meaning that each table is its own room. This definitely is a very good place for private dining. Have no doubt, Kura is worth the price.

  

Faux Japanese restaurant in Jaya One, PJ

2 weeks ago, we went to Jaya One in section 17 Petaling Jaya to celebrate a birthday occasion. That was only the second time us being there, the first being almost a year ago.

In the time gap between, we noticed some changes and some that were the same. Duck King is still more or less as crowded, though the queue previously was a little more longer. A few other eateries/cafe were still there, such as Old Town White Coffee kopitiam, Nando’s, Starbucks and a few others. However, there are some that seems to have closed. A kopitiam, probably Kemaman, had closed, and a bar is now in its lot. From the looks of things, business is not hot for this bar as well. Il Divino was not open, probably closed. Another Chinese eatery on the Wai Sek Kai row was closed as well.

Anyway, after taking a short tour of the area, we decided on a restaurant with a Japanese name, Kissaten. The waitress outside introduced the restaurant to us as a Japanese restaurant. So, in we went. The interior decor was minimal and simplistic, one that does not resemble a Japanese restaurant. That should have been the hint to us. The menu shows a few dishes, barely disguised as Japanese. There were more Oriental and Western selections than Japanese ones.

For our order, I went for the ABC Pasta, which turned out to be Fusilli with the very oriental ABC soup. The base soup seems to be seafood in nature, probably clams or mussels, served with the typical ingredients of carrot, tomato, potatoes etc. This combination is not great, as the soup was the watery for the pasta. Once in the mouth, the soup will be down the throat quickly, leaving you to chew the pasta getting mostly the wheat taste.

As for et, she went for the Rice with Japanese Curry and Chicken Fillet. The chicken fillet was generous in size. However, the curry was just that, the curry sauce only without any other ingredients. That made this particular dish on the plain side. Not great at all.

We were entirely unimpressed with food, nor the setup. For the restaurant, it does not look Japanese, it does not taste like Japanese, it does not feel Japanese, but it’s called a Japanese restaurant by its staff and its name. So we call it …. a faux Japanese restaurant.

Surprisingly though, the place was full during the time we were there, which probably speaks more of the Jaya One place than the restaurant itself. Business condition in Jaya One seems to be a tough one, as only a few eatery has the crowd. Kissaten has the crowd, but I’m venturing that it’s probably due to selection, or the lack thereof, that’s available in Jaya One.