My Prawnie Cravings Fulfilled!

Recently, I suddenly felt like eating Shang Har Meen (Fresh Water Prawn noodle). Blame it on the baby in my womb! A friend suggested to go to Pan Heong in Batu Caves and looking at the great reviews on the net, it must be really nice. I remember going to Green View Restaurant some years back and had this unforgettable Shang Har Meen. Well, me being the less adventurous type when it comes to food hunting, prefer somewhere nearer and more familiar. So finally last Saturday, my cravings was fulfilled. My hubby, daughter and my brother-in-law went to Green View Restaurant in SS2 for dinner especially on my request. My sister was kind enough to bring my boys and her own kids to McD for their dinner because I had promised the boys that we were going to McD that evening. With that arrangement, the rest of us happily proceeded for dinner escapade. 

The bill was a bit hefty. A plate of Shang Har Meen for 2 was RM78! There were 2 huge fresh water prawns, each sliced into 2 vertically. Plus my BIL's recommendation of fried baby squid and a plate of vege, the whole bill was RM136.53 for 3 adults. Well, it is not always that I can have such a treat, so it's ok. Here is a pic of the plate of mee.

The most famous dish in the Restaurant, this plate cost me RM78!

The neon lights cannot be missed as you turn towards SS2 from Sec. 17.

The restaurant was quite full at about 8 plus pm that night. And I noticed almost every table ordered this famous Shang Har Meen. The taste was very nice but my BIL said it seemed less delicious than normally.  I was stuffed really full because I had 1 whole big prawn (2 sides) and 2 helpings of mee and then I kept eating the fried squid because it was a huge plate. I was worried we wouldn't finish it so my hubby and I kept eating it. Didn't want the hassle of packing it back. The fried squid was slightly spicy so my daughter wouldn't eat it. She also just ate 2 tiny spoon of mee only, she is a picky eater. So basically it was us the adults eating only.

Overall, it was still pretty good for me. My hubby complained of headache the whole night and the next morning too. He has cholesterol problem so the squid and prawn combo could have been really bad for his cholesterol level. I told him that I was having the cravings and not him, he should have just sit and watch me eat! So when my next Shang Har Meen craving comes, we will just go back and order a single serving plate for myself and he can just watch me eat! :P

Deliciously Johor

The boys are finally back home with us after two week being away at their Grandparents'. Except for the multiple mosquito bites on their legs and hands, they are fine and enjoyed their stay thoroughly. The boys are already planning to spend 3 weeks next year! But that has not been decided yet, ok boys? (I am typing this because they are watching the screen while I type).

Anyways, we are back home and somethings that the boys remember and miss is the food that Johor has to offer. My eldest now have a new favourite food, Mee Rebus Johor! I have almost forgot what that tasted and my dear father bought us a pack to try while we were there. So now, I am thinking if I should try cooking it sometimes for my son. But the recipes that I can get from the Internet are so surprisingly difficult! I never realised that a seemingly simple plate of mee rebus requires so many ingredients and so much work. Now I am having second thoughts, hmmm, am I up to the challenge or should I go find somewhere in Kajang that serves Mee Rebus Johor Style?! This remains to be seen.

Other than that, our other favourite Johor or specifically BP food are Char Chai Tua Kueh (stir fried radish cakes), 'O' Luak or 'O' Chien (Fried Oyster), Lontong (I love this for breakfast), briyani, duck noodles, etc.. Thanks to their granparents for buying all these nice delicious food for the boys and ourselves. I forgot to take pictures of them, so I only can provide some pics that I can find from the Internet.

Lontong Johor

Mee Rebus Johor

We will be back in BP for CNY next month. Hopefully we get to taste at least some of them then...

Again, the boys would like to thank their Grandparents for taking care of them so well for 2 weeks and they want to remind that they will be back again, next year end!

As Korean as it gets...

I had little to do with anything korean until some 8 or 9 years ago when they first aired a popular korean drama on TV. The rest is history. I am now a korean drama junkie! Gone are Hong Kong dramas from my routine, now only Korean guys get to fit into my tight schedule. I am even willing to sacrifice my sleep time to watch them online through my (sometimes pathetic) streamyx connection at home. My korean vocabulary has also expanded, e.g. Annyeong Haseyo, Sarang Aeyo, Bianeh, Kencana.... to list a few (ahemm..). I have tried learning to read korean and they have a very unique system. Really interesting but steam ran out...

My hubby never understands my obsession with Korean dramas, I think no men would. But one thing we do share is our liking for the most famous korean food that all korean drama junkies must know from all the episodes of korean dramas... the wonderfully spicy and sourish pickled vegetables, the one and only Kim Chi.... So we have tasted Kim Chi bought from supermarkets and they are extremely expensive. So we have been researching how to make own own kim chi and finally, last week, I rolled up my sleeves to try making it.

I got my recipe from here. Firstly, you need to soak your chinese cabbage (napa cabbage) with water and sea salt (2 table spoon) for 12 hours (overnight) in the fridge. Make sure all leaves are soaked in the salt water, weigh it down if you have to. Then, next morning, rinse the leave and shakes off access water, out them in a large bowl. Add in some minced garlic and ginger, more sea salt, some sugar and as much grounded dried chili powder as you like. To add more colour, I added shredded carrot and a few stalks of spring onions cut into strips. Mix them well in the big bowl, use gloves (I just bagged one hand in clean plastic bag). Pack them all into a glass container/jar, pour in any water from the bowl into the container. Make sure the water covers the vege, leave some space in the jar as there will be some gas being produced during the fermentation. Leave the jar on your kitchen counter (away from direct sunlight) for 2 days. After that you can keep it in your fridge and take portion to consume when you like. I tasted my own kimchi and I didn't have any upset tummy, so I am pretty happy. The taste is also pretty near to the ones we bought from the supermarkets. So I am confident that I can repeat this process with improved results next time too. This is how it looked like.

Pleasures of Home Cooking

Cooking and baking for the family are really great pleasures for me. On Malaysia day, last Thursday, my brother and his family visited us at home. I decided to cook nasi lemak and thai green chicken curry with the green curry paste I bought from Chiang Mai. It was pretty good, a little too spicy because of the paste but still good. My brother and my sister-in-law seemed to have enjoyed it.

Then on the weekend, I cooked more stuff for the kids and hubby. For lunch on Saturday, we had Hot Soup (Hakka style). This is a very simple soup, made with chicken or pork slices or both. The soup based was made from anchovies. Ginger slices, 'tong choi', ground pepper and chinese celery are also important ingredients, none of them can be omitted. The result is a hot but clear soup, wonderful for clearing your nasal blockage (just my personal opinion).




For tea, I made egg tarts. I had made them previously but it had been a while. It was difficult to get the baked tarts out of the tart moulds but we finally managed to. I like the taste of it but I think I need to try a few more times to try making the pastry thinner and also find the correct technique to remove the baked tarts out of the moulds.

In the evening, we went to a close friend's house for a early mid-autumn celebration cum bday party for her daughter. Was a nice nite for gathering of my friends with some hubbies being dragged into the gathering as baby sitters, such as mine.

On Sunday, after church, we had my kids' favourite for lunch. No points for guessing correctly, yes, it was Mc Donalds. I also must admit I like McD too, my all time favourite is double cheese burger. I know they are having a promotion for triple cheese burger but I dare not order it, double is already bad enough! So I had my double cheese burger while the kids had beef burgers, chicken nuggets and fries coupled with large diet cokes (too much sugar is bad for you, hence diet coke. Fat ).

For dinner made pork belly with salted fish in clay pot (ham yu fa lum po) again and also thick taufu soup (taufu kang). Felt good that almost everyone enjoyed their dinner. I said almost because my little girl wouldn't finish her food :(. She is a picky eater but I am determine to change that, slowly :P.














Looking forward to try cooking new stuff when I can again.

It's a Fly Day

I did say I will blog once a week, so it's time for another of my ramblings. This week, I have had the 'luxury' to have proper lunch in the company of my dearest colleagues since my hubby can send my son to school (meaning I don't have to rush out during lunch to send my son to school, something I have been doing since he started attending chinese classes offered by his school, outside of his normal time table!). Yesterday, we had Nasi Kandar from Nilai, packed by some of my colleagues who took the trouble to drive there and back. Many thanks to them and the food was indeed good. And many thanks for the good recommendation too, you know who you are.

Today, we went to the club house and this is also one place that serves great food. I had prawn fried rice since it's Friday (no meat day).

But they serve many other delicous food like this great chicken sandwich on homemade bread. Already I am feeling the kilos adding on as I speak about food, I better drop that and talk about something else...

Now on a whole different topic, I was reading this article about Malaysian Schools on the Nut Graph and it made me doubtful again about our choice for school for our sons. Gosh, will they blame us, in 20 years time? You see we (or largely me) decided to place our sons in national schools instead the increasingly popular chinese vernacular schools. I had many reasons, all valid, which I shall not elaborate here. But articles like these are making me real scared.

Why should we have so many types of schools anyway? And the Education systems and the constant policy changes sucks big time. Can they do anything right? Education is so essential in bringing up the next generation to become even more successful then the current one but are we moving in reverse gear or something? My kids are not some lab mice for you to test your policies on! Racial polarsations is so obvoius that they have create NS to try to make amends? But what can a lone parent do? We could home school them but that's like way drastic. Private school, you say? I have 3 kids, not one, cannot afford la...

Meanwhile, I am sorry la son, you have to go through all these but I know you are enjoying the very little homework life you are having as a Year 1 national school kid, compared to the other friends in the Chinese schools. I can only pray that whatever decisions we made for you will not deprive you of a bright future. Mummy loves you...