Home Cook Food by ME!!!!

I WAS a terrible cook, according to my dad. Haha. I used to cook dinner for the family back in secondary school and early college years as I always reach home earlier than my mum. I can only cook the simple dishes like boil some vegetable soup, pan fried fish and vegetables wok fried with garlic. Either my cooking was really terrible or my mum cooking is really good as my dad could tell who was the cook for dinner by the first bite. Mum always complained that I never put “heart” into my cooking. Can’t blame me as for me, the purpose of cooking is just to make the raw food cook and edible. Maybe I got the “cook” part correct but barely making it to the “edible” part. But in my history of cooking, there are no food poisoning or whatsoever. Only a few encounters of burnt food. Haha.

Since me and Calvin are tired of eating outside, I suggested to have a home cook dinner by me, since my parents was away for the weekend. I have the whole kitchen for myself. I have warned Calvin earlier about my skill but the “brave” Pooh agreed to my plan anyway. The night before, we went to Carrefour for shopping. We bought a fish, vegetable and soup ingredients. Fish was choosen by Calvin while others were by me. Let’s start!!

 

Calvin’s favorite soup is actually lou wong gua soup. I asked mum the night before about the main ingredients and method of cooking. She said spare ribs are better than chicken as it will make the soup more “fragrant”. So we bought spare ribs and lou wong gua. After cutting the melon into half, we noticed that there might not be much “flesh” left after scrapping out the seeds but mum said the seeds are not edible. The “smart” us figured out that the “flesh” will “inflate” after cooking. Oh well…. I added dried scallops and dried sotong into the soup because those are what mum always add in.

 

The final product of my soup. I cook it exactly the way my mum teach me. Maybe the melon was a little bit “skinny” as it kind of “melted” into the soup instead of “inflate”. Haha. Calvin said the taste was there but lack of something. My sis who came by the house earlier don’t even dare to try the soup. I don’t blame her as it is for the safety of her baby. Haha. I love the inventor of induction cooker as it made my life easier. Put it on “High” mode, went to watch Transformers and when I’m back, the content of the pot already starting to look like soup. Hehe.

 

The choosen fish by Pooh himself. He love the fish very much. He said it was nicely cooked. Yay!! Looks quite nice. We wanted to have chicken chop with lou wong gua soup, both are Calvin’s favorite dishes. But both of us totally have no idea on how to marinate the chicken. Hahaha. So fish it is.

 

The vegetable of the night. Looks a bit normal but actually it is kind of dry. Even though I pour some water during cooking but when I scooped the vegetable into the plate, there’s no gravy/broth/water or whatsoever at all. Luckily it still taste normal. I guess if I could ever mess this up, I should not be allowed anywhere near the kitchen at all OR I should think of becoming a man. Hahahahahahaha.

 

I guess mum is a little bit worried that I might burnt all the food and end up with nothing to eat. She called me the day before to inform me that, “I bought you chicken feet with mushroom and put it in the fridge. Just reheat it for tomorrow’s dinner ya”. Hahaha. I love this dish very much, especially the mushroom. I know it is unhealthy to eat chicken feet, that is why I always ask mum to put more mushroom and little chicken feet.

So that’s my simple dinner cook with “heart” for my Pooh. I guess I scored quite high with the fish. Next challenge shall be chicken chop and mushroom soup(I will try to make it from scratch, instead of using the canned mushroom soup, but will still buy one as a back up in case my “natural” mushroom soup fails).

Kobe Gyu Taku–1 and only visit….

Groupon, MyDeal and Milkadeal are websites that I will visit everyday. Besides viewing the current deals, I can also read reviews about the restaurants that I have never been to. Recently they have holiday packages that are quite cheap. I don’t mind to receive one as my wedding gift. Be it cruise to Phuket or hotel stay in Penang, I would really need it.

But last week, I was very disappointed with the deal that I bought for Japanese Grill at Subang Jaya. Me and Calvin bought the deal few weeks ago and decided to use it last Saturday. We have 2 vouchers for individual grill items. Calvin’s parents tagged along as well.

 

The name of the restaurant is Kobe Gyu Taku Yakiniku. I hope that is the correct name as I really can’t find any other words at the signboard that could be the restaurant’s name. Our table was on the first floor. Luckily we were given the normal table and chairs instead of seating on the floor as I was wearing a skirt and high heels that day. The floor seats will be a little bit uncomfortable as after a while, I will get buttock pain due to the hard surface. Haha.

Let’s start with the only plus point about this place before I start complaining.

 

The individual set consists of chicken and 2 types of beef where one of them is Kobe beef. Two long fork-thingy were provided at each table for the grilling process. The meat was very fresh and lightly marinated, so you could actually still taste the meat instead of only the sauce. When you flip the meat over, there will be the “grill mark” on the meat which makes it really nice and pro looking. Me like… hehe. Since there were 4 of us that night, aunty ordered sushi and unagi as well. The 2 individual set was quite small portion, to be honest. That’s practically it about the good thing about the restaurant.

As for the bad points, which really pissed me off:-

1. Their service was very super terrible. When we wanted to add extra order, there was no waiter/waitress around that could assist us. We waited around 5 minutes before a waitress quickly rush by our table. Request for green tea refill was super ultra slow. Even though the meat was served raw and no cooking required, it took them forever to serve us the meal. Everything that we requested was super extra slow except to bring us the bill.

2. While waiting for our 2nd round of raw grill meat to arrive, a staff (who both me and Calvin agreed that he is the chef) walk to the left side of our table and notice that the gas was still on and there was only a piece of meat on top of the grill. Without even asking or looking at us, he went to the other side of the table and turn off the stove. I was like….. WTF!!! Damn rude okay!! He should have ask “How’s the meal? Do you need any extra order?” or stuff like that. None of the above and just switch off our stove. We did not even indicate that we are done with the meal and ready to go home.

3. There is nothing to suck out the smoke from the grilling process at all. NONE!! OMG!! I nearly choked to death from the smoke. Luckily we were the first few customers, hence the only smoke around our area was from our table. I cannot imagine what it would be like when the restaurant is full of people. It would be very uncomfortable to dine there.

4. Since we ordered sushi, Calvin and Papa Pooh requested for Japanese Soya Sauce and wasabi when the waitress serve the sushi. First of all, she did not bring the soya sauce with the sushi and there’s none on the table. Does she expect the customer to eat the sushi dipped with yakiniku sauce?? She returned with a plate of soya sauce mixed with wasabi and said “I have mix the soya sauce and wasabi for you, so no need to bring 2 separate sauce plate lah”. Like hello?!?!? Damn lazy to wash the sauce plate is it? We never request for soya sauce and wasabi mixture okay. We requested both but in separated form. And the amount of wasabi in the mixture is very little that Pooh and Papa Pooh have to add additional wasabi into it. Seriously…..

5. I was ready to let go of the bad eating environment and service as the meat was good. But when the bill arrive, I vowed never visit this restaurant again as what they advertise on Groupon is a BIG FAT LIE! When we purchased the voucher, it clearly stated “Takumi Special Mori Set from Kobe Gyutaku Japanese BBQ Restaurant worth RM113.70”, which we paid around RM45 plus for one voucher. Imagine the horror when it clearly stated on the bill that the Special Mori Set is actually RM38 (plus minus… can’t remember) per set. Either they have Maths problem or they have issue with being honest to customers. Because that is pure cheating okay. Why is the voucher more expensive than ordering from the menu? And when we place our order, at least the waitress can inform us to add extra order like rice or green tea to make the voucher worth. But no, they didn’t say a word. I can accept the portion is small so that the customer will order extra food but then cheating is totally unacceptable. Luckily we ordered extra so that the remaining amount can be used to deduct the extra order. It’s like total bill around RM200 plus and our vouchers worth RM90 was just directly deducted from the amount and we pay around RM110. I was damn pissed off and smelling like a BBQ beef at that time, so I didn’t bother to question/argue with the waitress. Treat that as a lesson; next time check the menu price/blog review on the price before purchasing any vouchers.

There… 1 good point and 5 terribly bad points which made me and Calvin vowed never ever visit this restaurant again.

~BuHBaI~

Angry Birds @ ING

What did you do last Saturday during the Bersih Walk? Me and Calvin was stuck at home the whole day as we were not allowed to leave the house. We came out with a bunch of silly and fun things to do:-

1. Check MalaysiaKini website from time to time for the updates about the Bersih thing. The updates started as early as 7 something in the morning and quite updated with YouTube videos as well.

2. Name 10 songs from famous singers. It all started with the 4 Heavenly Kings excluding Aaron Kwok as Calvin can name like 30 of his songs where half of it I might never heard before. It was fun as we have to sing part of the song as well. For JJ, we have to name 20 songs as both of us listen to nearly all his songs. Haha. A great time wasting “activity”.

3. Grocery shopping (well, this was on Sunday) at Jusco Taman Maluri. Nearly bought raw food like chicken meat to cook as our lunch but I have no idea on how to marinate the chicken. Bought sushi and fried chicken instead. Next mission is to find recipe for yummy food and try cooking it myself. I shall never let my skin-less fried fish haunt me forever!!!

4. Clean the house, especially my room. Nothing much to clean actually since Calvin helped me arrange my bags nicely every time he’s here. Haha.

5. Count the amount of coins I have and put them back into the piggy bank again. Calvin even took “artistic” shots of my coins.

 

My fat finger counting the coins. We separate the coins into 50 cents, 20 cents and 10 cents. 1, 2, 3, …..

 

Bodyguard Baby at the background, guarding my coins… and fell asleep. Haha.

 

My piggy and bear bank. The tiny pink bear is my birthday present and have been with me for many years. Very cute. I used to have a big bear coin box. Mum accidentally broke it when she wanted to count the amount of coins I have in it. Can’t blame her because I stuffed the whole bear with a lot of coins till it was very super heavy. Hehe.

 

Some random food update. Fion, my manager, brought us Angry Bird cupcake and a red bird cake on Friday!! All of them were really cute. I nearly don’t have the heart to eat them. So cute!!!

The red bird cake was quite big. I love it very much. Not too sweet as Fion requested for less sugar. Her sister in law made all the cupcakes and the cake by herself. I want to learn how to make them also!!! Not only cute, but yummy as well.

 

There’s a bat hanging on the window near the pantry. It reminds me of my previous weird food post… *shivers*….

 

Calvin with my pig cupcake. I couldn’t eat the cupcake all by myself without showing Calvin. So I kept mine in a Tupperware to be shared with Calvin later on. Luckily I didn’t destroyed it’s face during “transportation”. Hehe. I think my pooh is cuter than the pig in the photo *cubit*. Hehe.

Next post will be about the Japanese Grilled dinner at Subang Jaya that I bought from Groupon. Yummy but disappointed. Haihh…….

~BuHBaI~

Tomoe Round 2 & Weird Dinner

Despite trying out quite a number of Japanese Restaurants, Calvin still prefers Unagi Don from Tomoe, Subang Jaya. I have to agree with him as the taste and freshness are at the top quality.

This photograph is not enough to justify how good this thing is. Not to sweet/salty, soft and best of all, even though after it has cool down, there’s totally no stale taste on the fish at all. Yummy, is the only word that Calvin frequently use to describe the Unagi.

My squid with separately ordered rice set. They do not have set meal here. Everything are ala carte. During the first few pieces of squid, the taste was still okay. But towards the middle and end of the dish, I started to feel yucky and too squid-y. Luckily uncle helped me out with the dish while Calvin was too busy enjoying his Unagi.

Overall, I would say the place is a little pricey but the quality of the food is no doubt the best. Fresh and the moderation of their taste. I don’t really like dishes that are too over (salty, sweet, spicy, sour, etc.) For once in a while indulgence, it is definitely worth it.

The other place that me and Calvin “ventured” to last week was this busy stall at the junction opposite Shaw Parade.

The stall is located at the road side. I can’t read Chinese but Calvin told me the menu includes bats, warthog (imagine eating Pumbaa from The Lion King), some kind of tortoise that can be eaten and other …. thing. Since we have parked the car in the complex and I was very hungry at that time, we decided to eat there. The place was quite full and we noticed that most of the customers ordered the coconut chicken. We ordered one, together with soup and curry warthog. The warthog was quite good but a little bit cold. Quite chewy and I still prefer the normal pork. Coconut chicken was not bad either. It is similar to herbal chicken but the soup base is from coconut juice. Even though the food is quite okay (and recommended by local food show), I doubt that I will return to that place again as the thought of bats & tortoise in the steel containers creeps me out. For those who have a brave heart and enjoy such delicacies, do drop by this stall to try out the “special” food. Hehe.

~BuHBaI~

Father’s Day–Round 1 at Elegant Inn

Daddy is not around on Father’s Day weekend, so the celebration was postpone to the following week. Joey showed me a broucher for Elegant Inn, which is nearby my company, on Thursday. I browsed through and the Lobster Promotion caught my attention. I seldom have the chance to enjoy lobster as it is very expensive. Even if I have the chance, the amount of meat very little. I showed my parents the broucher the same night and both gave me the green light to make table reservation. Too bad sis and Brandon koko can’t join as sis is allergic to seafood and she’s currently pregnant!! That means I am going to be the world most awesome aunty soon. Hehe. The promotion is 6 course meal for 3 person at RM333++. Since there were 4 of us (mum, dad, me and Calvin), we added additional 1 set of appetizer, soup and dessert.

Us while waiting for my parents. My sis don’t like my lace dresses but this is brand new. I can only wear when she’s not around and should not take much photo while wearing it. Hehe.

There are 2 outlets for this restaurant available in Malaysia. The one we visited is at Menara Hap Seng (behind the Merz showroom) while the other one is at Taman Connaught.

Just like it’s name, the restaurant is decorated elegantly. There are around 4 to 5 private rooms with karaoke facility. I browsed through the menu and their food are quite expensive as they serve mostly abalone, geoduck, shark fin and other expensive seafood. They serve dim sum for breakfast as well.

Our appetizer. Soft shell crab, chilled salmon and lobster with fried white radish cake. I love the chilled salmon and lobster the most (on the spoon). Sweet and sour, very appetizing.

For soup, we can choose between beef soup and shark fin soup. Since dad, mum and Calvin choose shark fin soup, I went for the beef soup. The beef went well with the special chilli paste. Soup was clear, sweet and most important, not oily at all. As for the shark fin soup, it is hidden in the dumpling look alike thing. Besides shark fin, there’s prawn and  scallop as well.

For the lobster, we can choose the method of cooking. The restaurant’s specialty is salted chilli padi and cheese baked. Mum choose salted chilli padi as I don’t really like cheese baked. The lobster is very big. The 2 claws are at the side of the plate and Calvin forgot to take a photo of it. The claw is as big and long as my palm. The meat was very sweet and fresh. Yummy yummy…..

The blur photo is actually Hong Kong kailan with preserved vegetable. Green dishes is a must for every chinese meal that we have. Sometimes 2. Hehe.

Chicken claypot rice with black fungus. I don’t really like this but my mum love it. She said this just gave her the idea on her next chicken rice dish. Haihhhh…. Luckily I’m on salad diet currently. Haha.

Snow fungus with pear tong sui and black sesame muachi and peanut paste fried balls. Hehe. I finished the whole bowl of tong sui because this is my favourite tong sui for all time. This is my favourite among the favourite by far as the amount of sweetness is just right for my taste. I skipped the muachi and fried balls as my stomach nearly exploded at that moment. If Calvin didn’t tagged along, I don’t think the 3 of us could finish everything. Especially the lobster. Definitely worth the price.

The non food related photo that Calvin took. He was amazed when I told him the kitchen door operates by sensor like those found at the entrance of shopping mall (when you go near, the doors will open automatically). This is his best shot of the door after several attempts. Hahaha.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the dinner that night. I hope my parents felt the same way too. Round 2 will be this coming Saturday with sis and Brandon koko and shopping as well!! It will be like travelling down memory lane where very Sunday, the whole family will do grocery shopping at Jusco Taman Maluri. Ahhh…. those were those days… Looking forward for Round 2!!!

~BuHBaI~

Father’s Day & Debbie’s Wedding

I have a lot of fun over the weekend, especially on Saturday. I attended Debbie’s Wedding. That was my second time attending a church wedding. Both weddings are totally different experience for me. I was late, hence I missed the part Debbie walking in with his father. Good thing is I won’t have to cry. I don’t know why but everytime I attend a wedding (church, tea ceremony or dinner), I will cry during the grand entrance of the bride and groom. I can feel their happiness and joy. I wonder what will happen during mine. Hehe.

 

The gorgeous bride was my neighbour in my office for quite some time. We have the same enemy and spy on the same person but she was the brave one who stood up and “sound” that person. Hehe. Initially, she was sitting right behind me and we shifted to the other corner where she sat next to me. Since her table was smaller, we shared a lot of things together. This kind woman even change my water bottle every morning with room temperature water okay!! I missed her so much when she move to Marketing department. Me, Bie and Melissa will go out for lunch every Friday where we bitch about the bitches and bastards around the office. After I left the company, we went into separate ways. Bie, into a blissful and joyful wedding life. Mama Meli, pregnant with a baby boy. Me, working my ass of at my current company and paving the path of my own future. We do e-mail each other once in a while to check on each other but the 3 of us have been so busy with our life lately. I missed the lunch bitching session very much. We can never stop talking and laughing as we exchange gossips. Hehe. Once again, congratulations Bie. I hope you are reading this. You know I love you very super ultra much. Wish you and Joshua a happy and blissful marriage.

 

Another celebration will be Father’s Day. My Mie and Dee went to Kelantan with friends over the weekend, so I went to celebrate papa Pooh’s day instead. Luckily I have bought Dee a Father’s Day present earlier and glad that he likes it. Looks good on him. Hehe.

Papa Pooh’s day was celebrated at Neway Subang Jaya with Mama Pooh, Sister Pooh and Sister Pooh’s bf. This is my first time singing from 7pm until 2am in the morning. Although not continuous but by 1am, I was exhausted. We sang Mandarin, Cantonese, English and even Malay songs. Can’t blame me for being tired so easily at this age as the wedding and Father’s day fell on the same day. Hehe.

 

Papa Pooh has a new pen. He can’t stop smiling while admiring the pen. I guess his feelings was exactly same as me when I first hold the pink Gucci (the one that I will never ever own… haihhh). The smile on the face will never disappear. Instead, it will grows wider. Hahaha. The one who bought the gift will be very happy as well as the gift the effort on choosing and purchasing the gift was acknowledged and treasured. Although I can’t have the bag but I will it will always be the love of my life (bag category… haha), till the day I set my eyes on another gorgeous bag. But after one year, it is still way on top of the chart and so far no bag can replace it yet. You might think I am being over reacting over a handbag but everyone have something that they really like and treasure. Could be the SILLY PS3 GAME THAT DON’T HAVE ANYTHING NICE EXCEPT THE FINISHER PART, GUYS WITH TIGHT PANTS AND “YOU CAN’T SEE ME” THINGY GOING ON AND ON AND ON, earrings (my sis), WWE MAGAZINE THAT CAN ONLY BE FOUND AT CERTAIN BOOKSTORE AND THE DATE OF PUBLISH IS NOT FIXED AND I HAVE TO STOP AND WAIT FOR THAT SOMEONE TO GO IN AND CHECK AND SURVEY AND ADMIRE OTHER BOOK, while mine just happen to be handbags. Need not to be branded or expensive, as long as I love the design. But just so happen that each of my handbags is from certain brands. Hehe. I am not greedy. At least one from each brand will do. I won’t mind having more from Gucci as their pink bags design are awesome!! Aihh…. my pink Gucci ahhhh…….

Okay, sorry for the detour. Anyway, Father’s Day celebration with Pooh Papa was fun. I did embarrassed myself by singing out of tune, out of rhythm and most importantly, I was influenced by Shin to stare at the handphone for the pinyin lyrics, except mine was from Google search while hers was from her phone storage where she type the whole song into message/notepad form. Hehe. I will no longer laugh at Shin anymore as I get to sing more Mandarin & Cantonese songs than I used to. Most importantly, I get to sing along with Pooh. Hehe.

This coming weekend will be Dee’s turn. I still have no idea on where to eat. Haihh…. any idea??

~BuHBaI~

A little bit of everywhere

School holidays will end tomorrow and I just realized that my blog was not update for quite some time. A lot have happened for the past few weeks. Here is a summary of some of the “big events”:

I went to Singapore for a short trip to visit my grandfather who has underwent 2 surgeries there. He has his implant removed and a spacer put into the empty space. He is currently still suffering from a bad bacteria infection that he caught on the first operation. I hope that he will start to eat more every meal so that his body will be strong enough to fight off the bacteria.

Wedding plans have moved to the next level where me and Calvin are planning on how our future room will looks like and our honeymoon. We have a lot of ideas from time to time hence our initial Plan A is probably has changed to Plan K now. The date of meeting the sifu and submission of our forms for registration is on end of this month while I’m 8 months away from my wedding. Excited!!! Hehe.

Work is at it’s crazy peak currently. A lot of hospital decided to chase for payment. Hospital A even said “Please settle the payment as we do not have money to pay for the salary of our hospital staffs including doctors”. Haha. Funny…. really funny.

That’s the end of the summary. Luckily I have 2 galz to talk with from time to time. We shared our life principles and I realized we have grown up a lot. Looking forward on the upcoming meet up with them. I need to talk to them face to face desperately.

There will be no food post this time as my weekends are spent either resting at home or completely full of activities with friends and family member. Will blog more about food next time.

~BuHBaI~