: : TGIF, Subang Jaya : :

On my last night in KL, I had dinner with my friends whom I was staying with. We went off to eat at TGIF Friday’s at Subang Parade. So, as the meals are such large portions, we shared 3 dish amongst 4 of us. Had to run to the TGIF website as I think I misplaced the receipt and forgot some of the dish names.

Haven’t had a good fish and chips in a long time. I love the tartar sauce! It’s difficult to get good tasting tartar sauce these days, I can tell you that. The waiter gave me a funny look when I asked for malt vinegar. Hahaha!

By the time I remembered to take the picture, about 3-4 pieces were already eaten. We were that hungry for food food food.

Oohh! Luv this dish as it comes with many choices and there was enough for the four of ours. See if you can spot the potato skins, fried mozzarella and buffalo wings. Dressings are sour cream & chives, marinara sauce and cheese dressing. Not sure whether the cheese is the bleu cheese dressing as mentioned on their menu online.

Had a good laugh when I saw this poster. Haha! Was wondering why it was there. Then I remembered that in the US, TGIF is a popular family restaurant and also synonymous with American-themed stuff.

After that, it was a rush to KLIA and was dropped there by my pals. Will be seeing them over Chinese New Year to pass them a soft toy I “made” from Build-A-Bear!

: : Pets Wonderland: :

During the transit through KL, after a great dinner with Chooki, we went off to Pets Wonderland to try and walk off our really full full stomach. And these were really cute. Food gifts and snacks for pets! Note that I got told off for using the camera in the shop. Cheh! Ah well. Since I’m sort of ‘promoting’ Pets Wonderland in KL, it’s a free service for them, no?

Candy canes for pets! Wah! Pets these days are spoilt. Unfortunately, my poor Dede is not feeling too well. Dede is my pet hamsters who has caught a chill after I bath her last Sunday. Poor thing. She’s still moving around but is a bit feverish. Luckily, she’s not coughing or shivering. I’m feeding her little bits of apples everyday since Sunday which she is enjoying. She was feeling better two days ago but not so well today. Sleeping most of the time and moving now and again to eat. Hope she gets better soon. I’m wondering how the heck does one go about giving a hamster cod liver oil?!?

: : Chinese New Year Goodies : :

I went to buy some apples just to pamper my hamsters a bit when I saw this juicy looking fruit there. Wah! Never seen a pomelo so yellow so took a closer look at it. The signage said ‘Honey Lemon Pomelo’. Bought one home just to try and taste it as well as a treat for Granny.

Yep, this is how much it costs. I bought this from Choice Daily as didn’t want to go around town hunting for it in the horrendous CNY traffic jams.

Help! I need help with reading message in mandarin! Pretty please with sugar on top?!? Haven’t opened the pomelo yet. Will take some pictures when I do. Probably Granny will cut it first as she looked pretty tempted to eat it!

Each CNY, I see new food goodies everywhere. I wonder what else will be popping up within the next few days. Must plan a trip down to town to see what festive goodies are for sale.

Speaking of which, am thinking of arranging for a pre-CNY dinner session. Min Yen’s cousin mentioned about wanting to meet up so am scratching my head on where to go. Probably this weekend. Any recommendations from anyone? Criteria is that the eating spot MUST BE IN KUCHING! Anyone else interested to join us?

: : Cookies! : :

Deep in the Hundred-Acre Wood

Where Christopher Robin plays

You’ll find the enchanted neighborhood

Of Christopher’s childhood days

A donkey named Eeyore is his friend

And Kanga and little Roo

There’s Rabbit and Piglet and there’s Owl

But most of all Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh

Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff

He’s Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh

Willy nilly silly ole bear

And they were great too! Got them from a collegue who just got back from Singapore. Not sure where she bought it though. The Mocca Almond Cookies (yellow tin) were tasty even though the coffee smell was SERIOUSLY very STRONG. Spread though the entire office.

: : Poison : :

It’s amazing how mislead people can get when searching on the net. River posted a recipe for an interesting salad with shumac (powder?) as one of the ingredients. Next thing you know, a smart-alec goes and says she’s out to poison them with poison shumac.

Oh yeah. Watch out you Westerners! We Asians are out to poison you all! Muahahaha!

Okay, I’m just kidding here. Poking fun at that American. Fell off my chair laughing my head off. I finally found the page that the American was referring to so here it is. If that guy is so worried about sumac, buy the spices from a Middle-Eastern shop who would be able to differentiate between what is poisonous and what is not. Haiya! We will be civilised to let you walk into the shop and purchase the goods.

Ok ok ok. Will finally stop the teasing. Do not take me seriously as I’m just making light of the incident. Live a little people!

All food that we eat can lead to health problems and at times, dangerous. Look at the list of Chinese food alone :

Lap Cheong (processed pork literally soaked in nitrates which causes cancer)

Cangkuk Manis (if you do not know how to cook it, don’t bother)

MSG (too much will cause shakes, blackouts, etc.)

Artificial Vinegar (nearly pure acetic acid! used by hawkers because it’s cheaper than malt vinegar)

The list is endless. What are we going to do about it? I know! Do what the Koreans do : use metal chopsticks whenever you’re eating. If the food reacts to the metal, chances are it’s poison. Wait a min! Aren’t you using stainless steel forks, knives and spoons? Should work just as well.

So, and live a good life today!

: : Kartoffelpuffer ~ Potatoe Pancakes : :

It all started back in November 03 when Alberto cooked Kartoffelpuffer for dinner and graciously providing me with the recipe. Then, I promptly forgot all about it and when Josh did another posting, then I remembered and wanted to do it in US. Since Jas was in the midst of moving apartments and packing up her cutleries, I didn’t do it until today with Granny. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon so I thought, why not?

Wena : Eh! Want to make potatoe pancake ah? Very nice wor! But you got tepung biasa (wheat flour) or not?

Granny : Errr…don’t think so lah! Have to check one!

After checking the fridge.

Granny : Don’t have flour lah but got this one! Can make very very crunchy! Better than KFC wor!

Wena : See see!

The powder was a batter mix by Hup Loong which is famous in Kuching for making crispy dishes. My Granny searched everywhere for it and finally found it at Top Point Supermarket in Tabuan Jaya. Click on the last picture above to read the ingredients and instructions on using the powder. We didn’t follow those instructions but used the one from Josh’s posting although we did add more flour in. More information here on the various batter premixes that they manufacture and sell. The reason why we decided to use this was because it was raining very hard and we didn’t want to tackle the traffic jams in Tabuan Jaya.

So we prepared the ingredients to fry the Kartoffelpuffer. I didn’t dry the grated potato as much as I should have but oh well. The batter more than made up for it. I added in another bowl of batter in upon Granny’s instructions since she said that needed a lot more of this flour to make it crispy. So it was another quick mix and in it went with the others. I did notice that a lot of water was seeping out of the potatoe, making the entire mixture very soggy. Hmm… must bear that in mind the next time.

We used a Chinese wok for this as to pull out a pan out of the kitchen mess (undergoing massive renovation works since July). Looks okay from the picture no? The ends were extremely crispy and tasted just like potato chips.

Pipeman : (Crunch munch) Sweet potatoe ah?

Granny : No lah! Normal one lah! Eat with chilli sauce chun (good)!

The chilli sauce is an Asian touch to it all. I didn’t want to be stuck with 1.5 quarts of applesauce and with it raining and all, didn’t go down to Choice Daily to get a small bottle of it. Oh well. I ate it plain as it was good enough to do so. I luv the crunchy ends a lot.

Granny : Can start good business wor! We sell during Chinese New Year want?

Wena : Ahem…

Having said that, we decided to prepare a batch for visitors on CNY. Figured that the crispiness would last for probably one day or rather, fry it when people are around. We don’t get a lot of visitors so phew! Am also thinking of making some Rice Krispies treats as Jas showed me how to do it in the US. She got it off the cereal box but I found a recipe online via Stef’s blog. Only problem is that people will definitely compare it to the crunchiness of Bee Pang (local rice version). The Rice Krispie Treat will not be as crunchy as that but just as oily.

CNY entails too much preparation, methinks.