Category: Food Stuffs

Strawberries

Feb 5, 2022 12:25 AM

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Automattic, Food Stuffs
It’s your usual midnight blog post; when you got yourself stay awake in the middle of the night and social media is too weird (and too angry) for you to check.

I suddenly remember the times when I went to Florida, USA, for Automattic’s Grand Meetup back in 2019.

Specifically: Strawberries.

For me personally, it was one of the highlights.

We have strawberries here in Malaysia — we even have some locally grown.

The local ones are nice, but to have the good quality ones — I called it Driscoll’s quality — is really hard and expensive. 250 grams (one medium pack) of Driscoll strawberries cost you 50 MYR (11 USD-ish). I rarely buy them, and when I did, I always hide it from my kids. The strawberries look like the ones you see on TV and magazines. Plump, round, and really sweet.

During GM 2019, we stayed in Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista — and I found out they have a minimarket inside the hotel (shoutout to fellow Automatticians for showing me around when I arrived at the hotel.)

I passed some shelves, looking for cup noodles, when my eyes saw the fridge area. There they were, stacked neatly, boxes and boxes of strawberries. Plump, round, and sweet strawberries.

I checked the price.

2 USD.

In Malaysian Ringgit, it would be 8 MYR.

It took every fibre on my being to not put out my arm up front and push all the boxes into my shopping basket.

I got two boxes, and I think I skipped on my way to my room, feeling happy.

Also, much to my delight, I noticed strawberries are part of daily breakfast menu during the GM. I always made sure I took some strawberries on my plate before I got myself pancakes or toasts with jam.

TIL Strawberries are not berries

… eggplants, tomatoes and avocados are botanically classified as berries. And the popular strawberry is not a berry at all.
— The Strawberry: A Multiple Fruit

Also, I have been eyeing this… Japanese strawberries. Super expensive. Mega expensive. I’m so tempted to buy it, but goshdangit, does it worth it to fork out RM 100 (24 USD) for one pack? 🥲
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‘Delicious Rendezvous’ (SBS TV)

Aug 7, 2021 8:21 PM

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Food Stuffs, Movies, Documentaries, and Visuals
For the past several weeks, I have been feeling unmotivated. For most of the part, this is due to the prolonged lockdown here in Malaysia — specifically, Klang Valley area (Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are the two long-time runners of the highest cases on daily basis 🥲)

However, things are picking up. The vaccination rate in Malaysia is really high on daily basis (400,000 – 500,000 per day) and we are looking at the possibility of 80% of the whole population to be fully vaccinated late September.

Recently I have been watching “Delicious Rendezvous” in VIU (a streaming service app — they mainly provide asian dramas and variety shows.) Chef Baek Jong-won is the host of this Korean show; the idea of the show is to raise awareness and interest on Korean local produces that need publicity boost to help the farmers. It also helps to reduce food waste (on episode 1 and 2, they covered “ugly potatoes” — potatoes that, actually still edible and completely safe, don’t look “good” (not round) so the farmers have to throw the potatoes away because the potatoes didn’t pass supermarket suppliers’ quality control) and introduce wider variety of food to the public, specifically to Korean.

I. am. hooked.

This is a beautiful show. I love how Chef Baek introduces new ways of cooking to make the cooking process easier and simpler — and at the same time, retain the tasty and delicious taste. The show also supported by supermarkets to sell the produces to the masses (to increase the produce’s demand.)

This show also helps me to regain my motivation back. It seems like learning and having interests in something new makes you feel hopeful again.

Since I just finished episode 4, I made sambal goreng kentang — we have quite a lot of potato in the kitchen, so I decided to cook it to something that we can keep for a long time (also, sambal goreng kentang and a plate filled with warm jasmine rice are super nice!) You can check the recipe below:

https://corianderinpho.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/sambal-goreng-kentang/
You can adjust the number of chili you want. For me, I didn’t really count the chili. It’s basically you put the chili into the pot until your ancestors said, “that’s enough.”

I’m not super sure if “Delicious Rendezvous” is streaming on Netflix or not; but if you can find the service that does, do watch it!

Hee Chul is so cute here I just can’t… 😭✨

You can also watch Chef Baek Jon-won’s “Korean Pork Belly Rhapsody” on Netflix.

(Featured image is taken from Rakuten Viki)
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Cafe Chef Wan @ KL East Mall

Mar 24, 2021 5:16 PM

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Food Stuffs, Friends and Family
Hey! I skipped blog for the past 2-3 weeks as my sinus infection blaring up. Unfortunately, it happened on the kids too. We actually suspect the current renovation works on our apartment building caused the sinusitis/allergy as it can be pretty dusty at times. Luckily, no fever.

Recently, I’ve been listening to this.

I heard ‘Jálale’ from Disney Pixar’s ‘Coco’ and I always thought it’s an instrumental music.

Anyway! My husband has been watching Uncle Roger Shows and when he watched uncle Roger visited Chef Wan’s restaurant ‘Cafe Chef Wan’, he commented that we have to try it too.

We actually tried one of Chef Wan’s restaurants: ‘De.Wan 1958’ in The Linc, Kuala Lumpur. At that time, the restaurant was under refurbishment and it was… If I’m not mistaken, juuuust after the first lockdown. Things were still pretty chaotic and people tried to get back on their feet.

Nevertheless, this is a restaurant by chef Wan, and he’s one of the best chefs in Asia. His tireless exploration of food and his deep respect and understanding on food and traditional dishes are second to none.

So! We decided to try ‘Cafe Chef Wan’ restaurant; we also noticed ‘Cafe Chef Wan’ restaurant has variations on western and asian dishes. This is super helpful in case the kids preferred western food.

When we went there, the restaurant was crowded. Expected, because uncle Roger (Nigel) involvement would catapult the promotion to the public. When we got seated, we decided to have mee rebus (noodle soup) for Wira, spaghetti bolognese for Rey, Sri Lankan fish croquettes for appetizer, and kerutup lamb shank for Ari and I.

So! When I saw the price, especially mee rebus, I was slightly surprised because it’s quite above average. Might be due to the place itself, I thought.

Oh how I was wrong.

Cik Aini’s Mee Rebus RM34 (US$8.23)

This would be the third time we got fooled by the portion. First time was when we just arrived in Malaysia and we wanted to have dinner at Madam Kwan KLCC. We ordered a fish head curry and we thought, “eeeh, it will be a small fish head that Wira can finish on his own.” It arrived in a pot that enough to feed four people.

The second time was when Ari and I ordered our lunch from banana leaf restaurant. Banana leaf is a term for restaurants, usually Indian restaurant/serving Indian foods, that serving the food on banana leaf. You can eat the rice along with rich, spicy, yummy curry and gravy using cutleries, yes, but who would do that if you can just dig in using your hands? So! We ordered two portions from this restaurant: Devi’s Bangsar, through GrabFood. When the meal arrived, we had to keep one portion for the next day’s breakfast. Mind you, this is two hungry adults — and one with tendency to comment, “I’m hungry” every five minutes (not Ari.)

Wira enjoyed the mee rebus immensely. He mentioned that it’s spicy but not too chili-spicy. “It makes my tummy warm.”

Rey just dug in directly on her pasta.

Spaghetti Bolognese RM36 (US$8.71)

I rarely a fan of bolognese sauce because I keep getting sour-taste/acid from the ragu (the sauce) so I have hard time enjoying red sauce in respect to pasta. But this one, this one, for some reason able to give the richness and the sweetness of the ragu without the acidity. They did something really right with the tomatoes.

For the fish fingers, we all love it.

Sri Lankan Fish Croquettes RM24 (US$5.81)

You can dip the fish fingers to lime yogurt or to tzatziki sauce. The sauce gives the clean taste, yet you can feel the hint of spice (turmeric, I guess?) on the fish (maybe from the coating?)

As for the main character…

Kerutup Lamb Shank RM62 (US$15.01) (for sharing — 2 to 3 portions)

The kerutup lamb shank is served with nasi bukhari, pineapple chutney, dhal, raita, fattoush, and papadum.

The lamb is so soft; fall-off-the-bone soft. The richness of the broth balanced with the freshness from raita and pineapple chutney.

This is a dish for dinner. A meal to give warmth and comfort as you slip into the evening.

Cafe Chef Wan @ KL East Mall
010-207 0383
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Comfort Food

Sep 9, 2020 7:55 AM

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Food Stuffs
One day, one of my good friends texted me.

“Hey, I’m alone with my daughter at home and she has been feeling awful for the past two days due to cold. Do you have some kind of dish that you usually whipped out for your kids when they are feeling unwell? I ran out of options.”

I replied.

“Not exactly a comfort food, but I usually put ungodly amount of onions on the dish. I usually make this onion-egg fried rice. You only need rice, egg, and half the nation’s onions stock. Diced the onions whichever you like, heat the oil, put the onions in the oil — add a little bit of salt to let the water out and soften the onions — put the egg, scramble it, then put the rice.”

Anyway! I’ve been feeling quite off for the past week and culminated with annoying cold on last Sunday. Things feel bit better now, but I seriously need to get away from paracetamol for a day. So I made my breakfast with onions.

(And before anyone commented; distributed work. Viva la working from home and having onions for breakfast and wearing my UNIQLO Relaco pants with my feet on the chair while working.)

Not exactly onion-egg fried rice, but onion-egg sandwich.

I scrambled the egg afterwards because that’s how I like it. But to have it sunny-side up would be quite pleasantly aesthetically looking.

Put it on a toast. It’s not the handsomest sandwich on the block, but it’s one of the tastiest. Totally subjective.

Add it up with kaffir lime tea. I guess this is Indonesian-style tea, so you won’t taste the usual sour taste from lime. But you can smell the fragrance from kaffir lime leaves on the tea.

And that was the last teabag! Nooooo. It’s quite hard to find that brand here in Malaysia; and due to this pandemic, I can’t ask my sister to bring it here during her visit.

Anyway! What is your comfort food, and do you have specific recipes for it?
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Sambal Goreng Kentang

May 26, 2020 8:01 PM

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Food Stuffs
Ooookay, I’m not super sure the English term for it, but it’s basically another Indonesian take at sambal (if we could put sambal on everything, we would—wait.) Kentang is potato, sambal is, well, sambal (chili paste — mixed with garlics, shallots, salt, sugar, pepper, and sometimes, shrimp paste,) and goreng means fried.

This dish is not exclusively for Eid, and many households cook it as side dish (yes, it has potatoes AND we eat it with rice) and one of folks’ favorites because you can keep it and re-heat it for the next meal.

Potato is the main ingredients, and folks add another protein on it: quail eggs, chicken livers and gizzards, and (sometimes, if you — and your nose — are strong enough,) stinky beans.

A bit of warning, this dish has lots of chilis and shrimp paste. This is not for the faint of heart.

Sambal Goreng Kentang

With chicken gizzards because that’s how I like it

For 4-5 people; and you can keep it for 2-3 days in a fridge

Cut and diced:
800 grams potatoes (you can round it up to 1 kg. This depends on how much you like this dish, though.)
300 grams chicken gizzards

Spices, blended:
10-15 pieces red chilis (I don’t know its exact English name, but in Indonesia, we call it “cabe keriting” (curly chilies.) In Malaysia, though, I’m using Johor chili)
5 pieces bird-eye chilis (if you like it really, really spicy)
6 garlics
10 shallots
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste (belacan/terasi) (heat the shrimp paste first to exude its aroma)
2 candlenuts
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder (optional)

Spices, mashed/tear:
3 kaffir lime leaves
3 bay leaves
2 cm ginger
2 cm galangal

To taste:
Salt
Sugar
Pepper

Cooking oil

Deep fried the potatoes and the gizzards separately. Set aside.

Put a bit of oil on the wok (you don’t have to use new oil; you can use the oil from previous fry (potatoes and gizzards) and heat the blended spices. Add the mashed spices/herbs. Heat it until it’s fragrant.

Put potatoes and gizzards into the wok and mix it thoroughly. In Malaysia, we had this term: Pecah minyak; in Indonesia, my aunt mentioned to me to cook it “until dry” — meaning that you need to mix it on the hot wok until the sambal sticks on the potatoes and gizzards and you could see the oil “separated” from the dish. You shouldn’t see some kind of “chili soup” on the wok. The sambal needs to look like marinated the potatoes and the gizzards. And yes, it needs upper arm workout to handle this dish.

Serve with warm jasmine rice or ketupat.
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