CNY food in Melbourne

Voila! How's 2014 been treating everyone? CNY has been quiet here in Melbourne, as usual, but we tried to create the atmosphere by making FOOD, food and MORE food. What is CNY without food btw? LOL. Anyway, here's a recap of some of the homemade stuff we had during CNY:

Fresh from the grill

Homemade Bak Kwa! 

Cookies - Peanut, crunchy almond, pineapple tarts, and milo koalas

Packed some to send out as gifts to friends

A must for Beijingers - dumplings

A must for Hakka-ers - Pork trotter vinegar (Chu Kiok Son)

Shanghai-nin delicacy - Kao Fu

Malaysian Chinese seaweed cracker

Hubby's best stir-fry lobster

Another must for Hakka-ers - Yam with pork belly (Kiu NYIUK) 

Kumquat marmalade - thanks to kumquats from neighbour

Looking at all the photos, i am so proud of myself this year for being brave enough to attempt some of the delicacies which i never thought i would be able to make. My most favourite is kiu-nyiuk ... pretty good for a first timer. All thanks to tips from mom and hubby who helped me fried the yam and pork. 

  

Ji Ku Ba Ku Teh/ Ba Ku Teh

Ahh, bak kut teh! One of our comfort food in the cold. Never realised how comforting the herbal rib soup is, especially during those chills. Hehe, tell you a stupid secret. I never really liked ba kut teh to be honest. Wouldn't fancy it in M'sia in that tropical warm weather. And did you know that ba kut teh in Singapore is ... well, very different? They taste like pepper soup!

Malaysia (as in Klang) has a reputation for best ba kut teh. According to one of my friends from Klang, they have ba kut teh for breakfast n lunch. They signify it as how the northern Chinese signified their dumplings. Slightly different, we Sabahans eat ba kut teh for dinner, and sometimes lunch? I didn't fancy the ba kut teh i had in Singapore (quite bad, i tell u) lol, but somehow, cooking their herbal sachet at home taste better than those from M'sia. The taste is more prevalent n stronger, wherelse the ones from M'sia are weaker. Funny thing is, it doesn;t taste like the true n real Singaporean ba kut teh. Go to SG to try their infamous 'rou gu cha' n u'll understand wat i meant.

We occasionally cook ba kut teh at home, using ready-made satches of spice. Tried the Klang version, but not strong enuf (yes, how ironic).  Once my uncle and his family came for dinner, i boiled a large pot of chicken drumsticks and pork ribs with this Seah's spices n it was super good. From then, i stick to SG spices.

Another thing i discovered was by boiling chicken n pork together, it produces a sweeter stock.  For this reason, whenever i decided to cook ba kut teh or 'ji ku ba ku teh', i always get skinless chicken drumsticks and pork spare ribs. The result: super yummy!

What can be better than serving with a bowl of plain rice! On a cloudy winter day ... i'm dreaming of ji ku ba ku teh!

Easy. Just boil the meat with garlic over low heat for the first 1.5 hrs, add the spices in the last 30 mins, followed by mushrooms n vege before serving! Enjoy!

A m'sian affair in my kitchen

Weather has been moody n chilly these two days; same goes with my mood. LOL. hormonal change? or PMS symptom? Not sure. Sth is bothering me. Whatever it is, one thing that kept me happy was the affair happening in my kitchen.

Nothing beats curry chicken or bak kut teh on a cold rainy day. One word. Awesome.

Curry Chicken with Potatoes - without coconut milk.

My Klang styled bak kut teh affair. So comforting.

Imitation of prawn mee? LOL. Nah. just MAGGI mee with frozen banana prawns n chinese cabbage.

And last but not least, the so sesame affair which continues to be my boost of calcium.


Dual Sesame Biscuits



A Malaysian Lunch

Woke up early to get ready n prepare breakfast before setting off at half past ten for my computer driving test. I passed with two mistakes; n 'sort of being forced to' treat my dear hub to lunch coz i didn't get 100% (we had a deal). You see, Redundant means brain doesn't function properly. Well, anyway, we had M'sian food (which is fair enough, i treated him my originality!) at this restaurant which i have been eyeing for a long time:

Hub's fried Kuay Teow. I think he fancies chao  kuay teow a lot, which shd be on top of my list to-do. Well, his remark on this particular one was, good enough, better than the ones in SG, n very big portion. ** if i ever cook this, i will make sure it's less oily, no 'si ham' n lotsa chive buds.

This is my tom yum. I was craving for sth spicy e.g. curry etc, n i tot tom yum wld do the trick. Sour but not spicy enough; n seafood used weren't fresh. Too much vermicelli which i only managed to eat like less than half?  Sigh. i must cook myself another very spicy pot of tomyum or curry soon.

Our dessert: fried pineapple ice cream. Such a disappointment. They used Canned pineapple ring, n batter was thick n soggy. Ice cream tasted like the ones sold in cheap tubs. Even nestle tasted better. N the caramel sauce was definitely not helping.