227. BBQ at the Pool

An hour ago the three of us (myself, Zu & Alif) came back from the hotel Marriot & Spa. We had a Sunday Pool BBQ at the Matahari Pool Terrace there.


It's something different having a bbq nearby a pool. It was nice too. Breezy and cool with the wind from the sea blowing.

This picture was taken on my leftside from where I was sitting, with the hotel pool and some part of the hotel building seen.


On my right are these views...towards the sea...






Now to the food... there were from right, beef, chicken franks, fish, chicken wings to be barbequed and thick chunk of minced beef for burgers. We just ask the chef to cook for us.



Wheww...for today I really forget my diet :p You see...BBQ meat!


and BBQ Chicken wings...


Black Pepper Sauce to eat those with...


BBQ fish, sprinkle some lemon juice over it and eat with ketchup


There were some extras like this fried Bee Hoon. In this plate...fried Bee Hoon, some fresh small local tomatoes, carrots with some salad cream


Icecream for desert


Oh I almost forgot about the BBQ Beef Burgers...Zu & myself ordered 4 pieces but we couldn't eat anymore so we brought them home he he...


We reached home around 220pm craving for rest.

Cheerio.

226. Chicken Wings with Tomato Sauce & a Side Dish

I woke up too early this morning. So hard to get up from bed. It must be due to the briskwalk I did yesterday evening. Imagine! 5 rounds the City Fan for more than half an hour. No wonder my body aches everywhere this morning. Ha ha...that was due to 5 days since my last briskwalking. Blame the rain :p

I had to get up. Aya was on morning duty so I need to help her with the cooking (mostly cutting the vegetables or cutting up the meat or chicken). After that she cooks. With me eyeing or tasting the end results of course loll...
On other days I rather cook but today she needs to bring food to work.

With exception this morning I told her she cooks the long beans with some prawns while I cook 'Chicken Wings with Tomato Sauce'. I cooked a bit more today as my son Farok will be sleeping in tonight. And he only eats the wing part of a chicken :) Why I make tomato sauce it's because he and my daughters love anything cooked with tomato sauce.

Chicken Wings with Tomato Sauce


12 chicken wings cut into halves (washed,placed in a sieve to drip dry)
Mix the wings with some turmeric powder and some salt
Deep fry in hot oil
Keep aside.

To make the sauce.
Saute 1 cut large onion, sliced ginger & 1 sliced red chilli in hot oil in a pan
When onions are cooked and soft, add in 1 small bottle of Maggi tomato ketchup
Stir, add some sugar, ajinomoto and salt to taste.

Let boil, then add in the fried chicken wings. Again let boil and well cooked
Taste again for enough salt, ajinomoto and sugar.

Pour into glass bowl or in a small pot. Serve with rice.


Sambal Nasi Lemak with Hard Boiled Eggs


This one above is a side dish. Farok loves this as well. Seems like I am cooking for him instead of Aya eh? :P

For the Sambal,
Blender soft (boiled and take away the seeds) dried chillies
Add in 3 large red onions,
3 garlic
1 inch cube of belacan (shrimp paste)
Some water

Pour these ingredients into hot oil in a pan

Add some moderate size anchovies (approx half a cup)

Bring to the boil, let it thicken under moderate fire

Add some tamarind juice, salt, sugar and ajinomoto to taste.

Leave to cool in a bowl.

As for the eggs, boil 5 to 6 eggs in boiling water in a pot until hard. Peel and add into the Sambal Nasi Lemak.

Usually the eggs were gone much faster than the sambal, so any leftover I keep in the fridge and reheat the next day.

The sambal is also delicious to eat with white bread :)

Cheerio.

225. Pakcik Wan Cafe

I know I have been talking about food and nothing else recently and today I want to tell about this eatery place in Lutong which was introduced by Noormy's bf to me. It is called 'Pakcik Wan Cafe'. Later, I have been to the place a couple of times with just Noormy, Zu, Alif and hubby. We went there to eat 'Mee Kolok' for breakfast.

Lutong is a small town about 7km from Miri, and it takes 15 to 20 minutes to drive there.

The queer thing is, each time we ate there, there were lots of people and Pakcik Wan Cafe is really crowded. Good business. Most of the people are from Lutong area, I guess. I am not so keen on the Mee Kolok here because I'd still prefer the Mee Kolok at the SEDC building in Miri, that's at Aseanika Cafe. Why? because eating Pakcik Wan's Mee Kolok, I still can smell the typical mee smell while eating the mee at Aseanika Cafe, I don't smell it at all. Hmmm... I don't know if you get what I mean or not, ha ha...

Anyway hubby likes Pakcik Wan's Kolok Sapi, so that's why we are often there :)

Mee Kolok Sapi ( with meat and some perut sapi and the dark soup has some herb smell)


















Mee Kolok Pakcik Wan with beef plus some wantan in it (RM4.50)


















Mee Kolok Pakcik Wan with an egg on it plus some wantan too (RM4.50)


















The two mee kolok above will be served with a bowl of soup each.

If you sit in the shop you can't help noticing these clocks. They represent the times of some different countries like London, Tokyo, Lutong, New York etc. There is a no smoking sign too, but I can see some guys smoking while eating.



















Also there are lots of shouting of orders between the workers to the kitchen cook, helpers and vice versa going on, and even when I am sitting furthest from the kitchen I could still hear them. Too noisy.

And I don't like too noisy surroundings while eating breakfast.


Cheerio.

224. Vegetable Popia

Vegetable Popia is easy to make. What's important is the filling, if the filling is tasty and delicious then all the popia would be gone, eaten in seconds he he...
My grandson,Alif suka betul makan popia ini!



To make the filling :
1/2 yam bean (sengkuang) shredded
1 tin mushroom (sliced thinly)
5 - 7 long bean (sliced thinly)
2 - 3 small red onions (sliced)

Saute the onions in oil in a frying pan. Add the long beans, when almost cooked add in the shredded yam bean (sengkuang) and the sliced mushroom. When cooked and soft add salt to taste and a little ajinomoto. Leave to cool.



Now I fold the popia skin.
Take a a bit of the filling with a teaspoon and place it on one corner of the popia skin. Fold it.


Fold both right and left ends towards each other


Continue folding until the ends meet. Pat a little water onto one end so the two ends will stick together.


Continue folding the rest of the popia skins until finished.


Deep fry until golden brown. Leave to cool. Best eaten for evening tea.

Cheerio.

223. Pasta for Breakfast

Yesterday I was browsing at things at the Boulevard supermarket at the Imperial Mall when I saw this packet of 'Mc Cormick's Creamy Garlic' to make sauce for pasta. It's been quite a while I made 'Spagetti Bolognese', I thought maybe I could try something different like this sauce. And this was very instant and has easy instructions to make. And you know I am addicted to anything with simple, easy cooking! ha ha...

So I bought one of these. I think this is quite new as it was the first time I saw it in the supermarket.


The contents was in powder form. And I do not need to add salt to it.
Mix the powder with some water, then heat it in a pan over a slow fire while stirring continously.
Add in a cup of fresh milk
Stir well,until you get the right mixture of a sauce (not too thick and not too salty)
Leave the sauce aside.


Meanwhile boil your pasta in boiling water until soft.
When cooked, place some pasta strands onto the plate then pour some of the sauce over it.
I also add some boiled cooked prawns onto it.


Before eating I grated some Kraft Cheese over it.


So that was my breakfast for today. Just perfect! :)

Cheerio.

222. Easy Buns

2 1/2 cup warm milk (you can warm the milk in your pan or in your microwave oven)
4 tsps active dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps salt
7 cups all purposed flour
1/2 cup butter, melted

Add milk and yeast, allow to rest for 5 minutes
Beat sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup butter and salt
Later, add in flour till dough is soft

The dough


Cover the dough with some piece of cloth for an hour, then knead it for 10 minutes.


Leave for an hour again and knead again for 10 minutes.

Divide into 24 pieces & leave on floured tray


Smear some softened butter in a baking tin or tray (8x5 inches). Arrange the divided dough accordingly.

Preheat oven 180 degrees C
Bake until tops turns golden brown (10 - 15 minutes aproximately).

Selamat Mencuba :)

Cheerio.

221. Eating on a Banana Leaf

After getting some medicines for Noormy's sore left eye from her panel doctor, both of us were thirsty so we stopped at this restaurant called 'Banana Leaf Rice Cafe'. It was my first time there but Noormy had been there twice. Both of us were thirsty so I ordered a glass of hot 'Teh' and she, 'Teh Special'.

My hot 'Teh' (hot tea with condensed milk) RM1.60


Noormy persuaded me to eat their 'Rice Set' (that's what they called it in the menu).
Noormy said there will be too much food in one rice set, so we decided to share one set. I was also curious to see rice serve to the customer on a banana leaf.

Rice Set ( white rice, 3 to 4 kinds of vegetables) RM5.00


Over the white rice you can ask for some gravy to be poured on so that your rice would not be too dry. We both asked for curry chicken gravy over our white rice


This red things are bitter gourd specially dipped in whisked eggs and deep fried (included as one of the vegetables)


This one is a side dish, we chose 'Curry Mutton' (you can order chicken or meat) RM5.50


That was a lot of food for one person! luckily we only ordered 1 set and not 2. After taking her medicines and chatting for a while both of us head for home.

Certainly, that was a new experience for me, eating rice on a banana leaf instead of a plate :)

Cheerio.