: : Gamelan : :

You know what? Was so hungry today at dinner that I totally forgot to take pictures! Oh well, guess everyone has to settle for a quick rundown on the menu.

Gamelan is an Indonesian restaurant located just past the Simpang Tiga roundabout, behind Bank Utama. It’s a nice place that is not noisy and very cozy as well. However, there are a lot of mosquitoes outside so would be advisable to sit inside where the aircon is.

The menu for the night :

Cumis Sos Mentega

Direct translation would be squid in butter sauce. This is yummy and is always on the menu whenever BJ and myself head over to Gamelan for dinner. It’s spicy and tasty at the same time although a bit oily from the butter.

Kangkung Belacan

Found out today that kangkung is actually Chinese spinach from another website. Normally, this dish had so much chillie inside that it makes one really really sweat. However, today was a very mild version so we wallop it pretty quick. One thing about kangkung is that it is one of the ‘cool’ food that it will cool your body down pretty fast. Also, there is a wive’s tale that kangkung causes cramps in the legs. I can testify to that as well as some of my other friends! Another note about this veggie : if you’re not careful, you might be eating one grown in a drain. Yes, it’s a water plant and some small-time farmers do actually grow this in drains. It’s a hollow plant so if you’re cooking it at home, you’d need to rinse it thoroughly before cooking it.

Fried Chicken in Soy Sauce

Sorry, my knowledge of the Indonesian language is totally zilch so went for the English translation. I’m not sure what the spices used were but I suspect the chicken was marinated in soy sauce, sugar and unknown (to me anyways) spices. Still, it was extremely tasty.

Stir-Fried Long Beans with Tauhu

This is standard fare and we girls didn’t want to have a heavy meal. So, it was mostly veggie all the way except for the chicken. This was so-so because the beans were not cook until it was soft. I guess some people just prefer it a bit tough.

Rice

It’s amazing how a bowl of good rice can complement a good meal. If the rice is terrible, the entire meal is spoilt after that. I believe that the rice used is either the Siamese Fragrant Rice or the local Bario rice. The grains were slightly sticky and small as well. Very tasty. Yum yum.

So, sorry about that folks. Guess it was a pretty tiring day that taking pictures was the last thing on my mind! Plus, had dinner really late so was very hungry!!

: : Granny’s Cooking : :

Dinner is, as usual, a beautiful (and delicious!) symphony of taste and colours! I just cannot do it justice with my camera.

Chopped Long Beans Stir-Fried with Egg

Teochew Fish

Chai Sim Soup (Chinese Mustard Soup)

Chopped Long Beans Stir-Fried with Egg

Long time favourite. (Notice how I enjoy my food? ;p) The long beans are chopped and then stir-fried with slices of garlic and egg. The taste is in getting the right amount of salt and egg into this dish AND at the same time ensuring that the beans are just nicely cook i.e. soft but still firm enough to bite into.

Teochew Fish

At least, I think it’s a Teochew dish as they always like to cook with a lot of dark soy sauce. The fish used is a tenggiri or rather, mackeral. Uncle Cyril has been catching this fish for the past few months and we’ve been basically eating it non-stop! The fish is first deep fried. Later, the sauce is prepared by frying the soy-sauce with onions, garlic and serai (lemon grass). Then, the sauce is poured over the fish and served hot Hot HOT!!

Chai Sim Soup (Chinese Mustard Soup)

Another clear soup for dinner time. Very simple to do. Cut up the veggie, pour in a pot of water, when half-cook add in meat, add salt+pepper to taste. Name of the veggie is Chinese Mustard, courtesy of Uncle Cyril’s vast pool of knowledge on plant life.

: : Thompson Corner, Tabuan Jaya : :

Lunch today was really a moral booster after a bad Monday. Had my two favourite food :

Sarawak Laksa

Ais Jagung (Iced Drink with Corn)

Sarawak Laksa

An all-time favourite dish in Sarawak. The taste is similar to curry laksa but it is thicker with many other spices and herbs added into it. The one I ordered had the following ingredients inside : bee hoon, sliced chicken, sliced prawns, sliced squid, sliced omellete, taugeh (bean sprouts) with chopped spring onions as garnishings. It was accompanied with a slice of lime and belacan (prawn paste with chilli). The best laksa sauce is made from the Swallow Brand with the logo of a blue swallow there. The stall I ordered it from is not halal.

Ais Jagung (Iced Drink with Corn)

This used to be a kiddies drink for me and my sis when growing up. After that, we graduated to more fanciful iced drinks like ABC and ang tow chendut (red bean with green jelly in coconut). Anyway, for the iced corn drink, it’s definitely a thirst quencher during a hot hot sunny day. It’s actually ice shavings mixed with corn (of course), condensed milk, brown syrup and grenaldine syrup. Mix it altogether for a juicy, cooling drink!

Thompson Corner is a hawker food stall where a lot of proprietors sell different types of food for reasonable prices. This particular branch is located in Tabuan Jaya, behind Bank Utama, next to Expert Foodcourt. Note that there is only one halal food stall in this hawker centre.

: : Granny’s Cooking : :

I’m amazed at the amount of different dishes my granny cooks everyday. The variety, the taste, yum. So, here’s a look at the dinner menu for today :

Stir-fried Bittergourd

Beancurd Soup

Sweet and Sour Fishball

Kacangma

Chicken Kurma

Stir-fried Bittergourd

To tell you the truth, I do not like bitter stuff. Still, it look delicious enough so here it is. Granny cooked it with pork, some garlic and I think some black beans.

Bean Curd Soup

Another favourite clear soup. The bean curd is actually from dried soy bean. The bean curd is sold dry and needs to be soak in water. Then it’ll become soft. Granny also added in black fungus : soft and crunchy. Apparently, the black fungus to good to prevent heart problems.

Sweet and Sour Fishball

A Westernised Chinese Dish. At a Chinese Restaurant, one can find sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour beer, sweet and sour fish, sweet and sour pork. Boring. But still, this one tasted good. Simple to do as Granny used Maggi’s tomato sauce. She also added in strips of cucumber and onions. Note that the cucumber core must be removed. No need to add water as a lot of it will come out from the cucumber.

Kacang Ma

This is an extremely potent dish!! It’s a herbal soup mostly taken by mothers during post pregnancy. Auntie Lucy gave us a pot and it really knocked us out tonight! This one was totally cooked in samsu(Chinese Rice Wine : used for cooking only)!! Definitely full of alcohol. The herbs are bought in bottles at cheap prices. It is fried dry and later grinded. Pounded ginger and the ginger juice is also added in with chicken. The alcohol can be substituted with more ginger to get a non-alcoholic wallop! Looks like I cannot sleep tonight.

Chicken Kurma

My sister’s favourite. Kurma is a type of curry that is not hot at all. The curry is actually a grey-brownish colour but still very tasty. A cholesterol bomb because of the coconut milk that is added. The curry is simmered until it thickens but by then, the kurma taste would have already been in the chicken. Yummy yummy!

: : Red Peach : :

Bad day at work starting with yesterday’s emergency. So, decided to pamper myself a bit with some Asian junk food. Got it from the nearby timbang place at Big Fresh Supermarket, Tabuan Jaya. Loved this SO much when I was young. Yep, the amount of things that can be eaten by a child is simply amazing. Granny gets the credit for introducing all the preserve fruits and snacks to me. But since she’s missing her teeth, well, harder for her now to eat these things. Also makes you wonder whether it’s healthy to eat it. :p

Anyway, this is preserved fruit is called Ang Tho or translated as Red Peach. It’s both sweet and sour at the same time. Can’t really describe the taste without one actually trying it. Years back, there were concerns regarding the red colouring used as it might be harmful for health. This particular one was okay as the colour was only on the skin. If you are looking to try out the different Asian junk food, this is a good choice.

: : Granny’s Cooking : :

Was so tired last night that did not put up any pics of granny’s cooking. However, it’s going up today. Typically, a meal would have soup, stew or curry, fish (common for us as Uncle C is usually out fishing during the weekends), one or two veggie dishes and rice. Last nite’s menu was :

Bak Choi Soup with Fishballs

Stir-Fried French Beans with Slice Carrots and Fish Cake

Assam Fish Curry

Bak Choi Soup with Fish Balls

Another clear soup that is easy to make. Bak Choi is like a cross between a lettuce and cabbage. The leaf is very wrinkled but the stem is firm. Granny added in fish balls to it. Basically, it’s cutting the vegetables into rectagular pieces, boiling the water, put in the veggie and fishballs, add salt and pepper and boil until the veggie is soft. Easy.

Stir-Fried French Beans with Slice Carrots and Fish Cake

One of my favourite veggie dish. The French beans is sliced diagonally into small pieces whereas the carrot is sliced very thinly. Although not seen here, chopped garlic is added into the dish. Garlic is added to any Chinese veggie dish to get rid of any unwanted smells and tastes but at the same time acts flavour to it. About 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic is sufficient for this dish. Fish cake was also added in. It’s actually made from fishball paste which is rolled into a rectangle and then deep fried. It is sliced thinly here.

Assam Fish Curry

Hmmmm…. This dish is sweet, sour and spicy at the same time. An all-time favourite. Usually, it’s cooked with fish head as well but as Uncle C didn’t come back with a big fish, Granny used normal fish instead. Assam? It’s a fruit that is extremely sour but adds great flavour in cooking. Assam can be preserved and eaten just like a pickle. Had a great time eating this curry. Did you know curry is great with bread? Try it. That’s why Indians always eat some sort of bread with their curries.