What happened to 'What's cookin'?'

Entah lah labu, acik pun tak tahu.

Masa mula-mula buat 'What's cookin?' tu semangat bukan main. Siap amik gambar setiap step tu, pastu trus post. Sekarang gambar step-by-step kemana, recipe ke mana, tinggal gambar final product je. Tu pun masuk Facebook instead of post kat sini. Admittedly, blogging has seen better days. Dengan kewujudan telefon pintar dan kebanjiran 'apps' yang macam-macam rupa, maka 'habis madu sepah dibuang'. Walaupun wujud 'Blogger app' dan seangkatan dengannya, still tak menyelesaikan masalah sebabnya blogging kena bubuh words, walhal *aiceh* kalau guna Mobile Uploads atau Instagram mahupun Twitter hanya perlu upload gambar lalu terus berpegang pada prinsip 'A picture is worth a thousand words'. Blogging pun tak sampai 1000 words kadang-kadang. Maka jelaslah bahawa saya malas update blog.

Di kesempatan ini nak mengucapkan *macam nak raya daa* yang semua gambar-gambar makanan yang di upload di merata-rata tu bukanlah semuanya air tangan ku. Rezeki Allah bagi housemates yang pandai and suka masak *penting nak sebut dua-dua sebab ada orang pandai masak tapi malas, walaupun ini jarang* dan yang paling penting suka makan jugak. Sebabnya kalau kita masak beria-ria sekali diri sendiri makan semua balik gila down seh. Macam tak dihargai lol.

Kenapa upload gambar makanan? Lelaki suka complain perempuan suka sangat amik gambar makanan. Saja lah suka-suka. Amboi korang orang upload gambar depan cermin kata vain, upload gambar makanan mengata benda lain pulak. Janji tak keluar ayat geli 'Arini Ayang masak chicken chop  ilebiyu untuk Abang' sudaaaaaaah.

kthxbai!

What's cookin'? - Ep 7

Salam,

Lama pulak tak buat entry pasal makan. Dah lama tak cuba resipi baru :P

So, presenting to you......

Baked Penne Pasta with Mushroom

You need:

Penne pasta

Garlic

Butter/Olive oil

Mushroom

Salt and pepper

Cream

Mozzarella and/or cheddar cheese

Some thyme leaves

Method:

1. Melt butter in a pan (or you can opt to using olive oil instead, I used both in this recipe :P)

2. Saute garlic till golden

3. Add mushroom (I used chestnut mushroom. The more variety of mushroom you add the better)

4. Add thyme leaves

5. Cook until mushroom is tender

6. Add cream (or you can use milk instead, just cook a little longer till it thickens)

7. Add salt and pepper to taste

8. Then add al dente cooked pasta. Mix well.

9. Transfer half of the pasta into a baking dish

10. Sprinkle cheese

11. Add another layer of pasta and finally top with cheese (if you have breadcrumbs, add it at the top)

12. Bake until the top layer is golden 

Simple yet delicious!

*puji diri sendiri kejap*

Happy trying folks!

Food Photography..NOT!

The food photos I have taken over the last one year, using my Sony phone. 

Brings back memories.....

 Chicken Pot Pie I made for graduation party at Colony Manor (or something like that).

June 2010.

Kayu Nasi Kandar

Trip to USM with Mama for my interview. Alhamdulillah the interview got me here :)

Nov 2010.

Cheese tarts I made for Sons of Adam Family Day at Pulai Spring Resort, Johor Bahru.

February 2011.

Sup ikan merah by Chef Mama, the best ever!

Cannot remember when the photo was taken.

Homemade beef kebab, and baked potato as background.

Baked potato, close-up.

Thanks to Annes for inducing me to try the recipe :P

Aglio Olio Spaghetti.

Thanks to my dearest Kekna for teaching me how to make it.

Remind me of our sleepover sessions :)

Seoul Garden, One Utama with sister and brother-in-law.

Again, can't remember *too lazy to switch on my phone to get the date*

Baked Pasta (kot) at William's Corner, Kelana Jaya with Angah.

Don't judge the food by the look :P

Laksa Janggus, Balik Pulau.

August 2011.

Trip to USM for Research Methods course.

Met the nicest couple ever.

Serabai. Yes, that is what it is called.

Not too serabai pun kan? LOL

Same time as above.

Ikan bakar Hammerbay, Penang.

First salary dinner treat by Harris.

Good time, indeed.

Before.

After.

Pasembor, Padang Kota, Penang.

Can't believe I finished the whole big plate. Too sedap to resist.

Cendol, Padang Kota, Penang.

Beriani @ Kapitan, Penang.

I forgot how it taste like but surely heavenly.

Restoran Nelayan, Seremban.

Man, their masak lemak cili api is to cry for! Sungguh sedap! I requested to have my last lunch in Malaysia, here.

September 2011.

Johny's Steamboat.

My last treat for my parents before I left. Ate like a lion that night.

It's the family's favorite dine-in.

September 2011.

Last but not least, my first try making Salmon Teppanyaki.

Oh, I love salmon!

Isn't it fun to take a stroll down memory lane by browsing through old food photos? :P

Hopefully more food photos coming in 2012

*which I doubt because it's never the same with Malaysian food :(*

What's cookin'? - Ep 6

Salam,

During my last sleepover with Kekna and Kekngah, Kekna made us wake up early in the morning to go to Tesco. She wanted to cook Spaghetti Aglio Olio for us. Pergi Tesco tak mandi uols, buruk perangai haha. Yelah, malam tu baru balik dari day trip pergi Melaka, sampai rumah at 1 am, tidur dekat pukul 3 am. By 9, semua dah bangun. Konon dah terbiasa bangun pagi sebab pergi kerja :P

I think it was my first time having Aglio Olio and boy was it delicious!

So earlier this week I kinda craved for it, but only got the chance to cook it yesterday.

So you need...

Pasta (I think any kind would do, this time I used Angel Hair)

Large prawns

Dried chilies

Ground black pepper

Parmesan cheese

Black pepper sausage

Garlic

Olive oil

FYI, Aglio means garlic and Olio means olive oil, in Italian. So the basis of the recipe are garlic and oil. And if you haven't noticed, ini bukan pasta yang ada gravy. It's rather dry. But since I am a cheapskate yang kedekut nak melabur RM19.90 for a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, I substituted it with butter. So it's Aglio Burro Pasta tee hee hee.

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan

2. Once heated, saute garlic until golden

3. Add prawns, sausages, and dried chillies (soak your dried chillies in hot water for a bit before adding to the pan)

4. Sprinkle ground black pepper and parmesan cheese

5. Add pasta

6. Add more parmesan cheese and black pepper to your liking

7. Pasta is then ready to serve

8. If you like, you can drizzle olive oil over your pasta before serving

Easy-peasy!

Happy trying :P

Supir.

 Salam,

Hari ni jadi supir, drive dari Putrajaya ke Seremban. Keluar je Tol Kajang, perghhh jam bumper-to-bumper. Tak bajet plak jam seawal tu, ingatkan paling teruk pun jam kat Nilai. Sekali tengok message board kat highway tu, 'Trafik perlahan dari Bangi ke Seremban. Harap Bersabar'. Fuuhh nasib baik CC aka the pregnant lady aka my sister tahu ikut jalan dalam. Masuk simpang Bangi, patah balik Putrajaya, cari jalan masuk Dengkil, pegi Seremban ikut jalan dalam. Sampai gak la dalam sejam lebih. Kalau ikut PLUS tu mahu 2-3 jam nak sampai Seremban tu. Time tu dah la lapar gila, nasib ada bawak roti telur dalam kereta, sebab tak sempat makan kat rumah. Maka bersuap lah dua makhluk dalam kereta tu sementara nak sampai.

Sampai je Seremban, terus Ayah bawa pegi area Stadium Paroi, makan kat Nasi Arab Damsyik. Actually a friend of mine yang suggest, so pegi la try. Lagipun setiap kali datang Seremban, asyik makan tempat sama je, makan masak lemak cili api, kali ni tukar selera plak.

It's actually a restaurant in a house. Keliling semua banglo, tetibe satu rumah jadi restaurant.

Indoor seating macam ala-ala Mediterranean. Ade outdoor seating jugak.

Chai tea (tea with peppermint leaves) and their signature drink Mango Lassi. Mango Lassi tu mmg sedap la, tapi Chai tea tu kureng sikit. Tak rasa sangat mint nye.

Set Thalasa Ayam+Kambing, for 3 pax. Ada set Wahid for 1 pax and set for 5 and 10 pax. Tak silap ada ayam and kambing je. Sedap! Nasi tu ade rasa ayam, rasa daging and rempah-rempah semua cukup. Oh set for 3 ni harganya RM50. Served in a dulang.

Licin yo! Haha Overall memang sedap. Cuma yang kurang part menu la, tak macam restaurant arab yang lain. Yang ni mmg simple je. Jalan Jalan Cari Makan pun dah sampai sini. Pasni nak try Sahara Tent plak, or Al Rawsha ke. Yang memang pure Arab-style punye. Oh yg ni owned by Malays kalau tak silap, sebab waiter sume Malays. Sahara Tent tu semua macam owned by Arabs.

A- for food.

A+ for ambiance.

For dinner, CC aka the pregnant lady aka my sister mengidam makan sotong kangkung. Ayah being a caring daddy, bawak la dia pegi satisfy her craving. Last nye bukak sotong kangkung je, kerang bakar and tauhu bakar pun masuk list.

Oh oh, something funny happened tonight before dinner (tetibe English pulak dah). Kelam kabut siap tadi, Ayah dah tunggu kat luar. Terhegeh-hegeh nak iron baju (padahal makan kat tempat gelap je pun gigih nak iron baju) sekali terbakar baju. Ok terbakar tu exaggerate. Macam terlekat kesan burnt la kat baju tu. Dah kelam kabut takde baju nak pakai, pegi sarung je baju Mama. Tak penah share baju ng Mama selama 23 tahun hidup okay, melainkan baju kelawar ke maxi ke. Ni baju berjalan pakai baju Mama. Nasib la okay. Keluar je rumah kene gelak ngan CC and Ayah, sebab baju tu besar sikit, and nampak macam makcik. Dah la tudung pun sarung tudung Indon Mama. Adoi lah.

See? See? Makcik much? 

Eh gambar satu lagi takde watermark. Malas pulak dah.

Ok itu sahaja kthxbai!

Girly Weekend - Part 2

Salam,

As promised, here's the second part of my girly weekend. This time it was with another group of BFFs.

On Sunday, 8 of us gathered at Little White Cafe, Bangi to welcome Aisyah home, and also to celebrate her engagement yo! One of us is engaged, MasyaAllah! 

I reserved for the 10 of us, but only 9 could make it. Me, Tira, Pao, Hawa, Aimi and Aisyah's friends from PennState-Peyya, Resty, Yaya. Zawa couldn't make it to LWC, but we managed to meet her at PKNS afterwards.

You really don't want to put 9 girls together in a cute little cafe. We pretty much treated the cafe like our own, and we talked and talked like nobody's business. Initially, I was thinking of having a private gathering (Ecah I'm spilling the initial plan for you :)), maybe in somebody's house or something. Pao thought even bigger, to book a hotel room! Then I thought of having a tea party, with cupcakes, muffins, together with English-inspired tea set and everything lah. Hahaha me and my angan-angan. I know you would love that, but sorry girl, the plan fell through, next time maybe? I thought, the closest thing to a tea party was to have the gathering at LWC. Jadilah kan? Hehe

I got lost on my way there. First, I thought I wanted to avoid using MRR2 because you-know-why lah. I'd rather drive back to Putrajaya, and use the usual route. But then I said, just try my luck, and yes I was indeed lucky that day, no heavy traffic except for in front of Tesco Ampang. Then when I arrived in Bangi, I got lost! LWC is on Jalan Medan PB 4A, (oh here's their Facebook) but Jane doesn't have it registered! She only has up to Jalan 3A, so the stupid me pergi pusing sana sini cari-cari tak jumpa. To make things worst, my handphone died on the way! Like flat habis. Out of desperation, I stopped by at a burger stall and asked for direction. Too bad the guy had no idea where I was heading. Guess what I did next?

.

.

.

.

I asked if I could borrow his handphone and he said yes!!! Must be my desperate look lah, thanks Abang Burger. Now you kiddo, don't do this at home. It iz very dangerousszzzz!! Kalau dah desperate sangat nak buat macamana kan? Survival 101. Thing is, I'm useless when it comes to memorizing phone numbers. I don't know Pao's or Tira's number by heart. So I dialed my sis and asked for direction. 

'Ko turn dekat ^*&()hkjo**^&^_GJBmnjgk' 

My mind was everywhere, I didn't bother to listen carefully. After what seemed like a good 5 minutes of menghabiskan credit seorang stranger, I hung up and relied on Jane again. 

'3A pun 3A lah.' 

Suddenly, I turned at one corner and there it was 'LITTLE WHITE CAFE' right in front of my eyes. Thank God!

Got into the cafe, hugged Ecah super duper tight (oh I miss you now) and talked the evening out. It was a great time catching up with her and others. Tak cukup kt LWC, we then moved to PKNS Bangi to find a place to lepak, and we settled for its food court. Empty food court, just perfect! Talked, gossiped, talked, looked at Aisyah's engagement pictures, gossiped some more, and it was 8 by then! Resty had to rush home, so off we all went. 

Saying goodbye was the hardest. Aisyah will be going back to the States this Friday to continue with her internship, and she will only be back for good in December. I, on the other hand, insyALLAH will be leaving this September, and not sure if I'll be coming back during summer. So yeah, the feeling of not-sure-when-we'll-see-each-other-again, it's so sad! We had many rounds of hugging-letting go-hugging-letting go we almost cried! Seriously Ecah, if you dropped just one little tear that night, I would have drove back in tears, okay!

But it's okay, it's not a goodbye, it's just 'See you later' eh? (One bear hug for you)

Now, the review part. (Wah so long ah the post?)

I give A for ambiance. English-themed interior deco, I guess. 

All white, me likey :)

*I'm not an interior designer by profession*

I had Chef Salad and Berry Cooler. I was quite full since I just had lunch.

Food wise, I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed. The food is a bit pricey, for the quality. I didn't try what others had, but from they were saying, the food wasn't that great. I took home a piece of their Red Velvet cake. Erm let just say, I've tasted better. I think they could have increased the portion to match with price they are charging. Just my opinion.

The cafe is quite small. I would say they could accommodate about 20-25 people at one time. You can see the whole of the dining area in this picture. Despite the whole food and price thing, I'm totally in love with the deco. It's a personalized cafe, the cafe spells its owner.

Oh I must say, the waiters are nice too. One of them even waited outside and offered to take our picture in front of the cafe. Just that he didn't take it with the signboard -___- Bummer!

Here's some info about the cafe (taken from their Facebook);

Little White Cafe

13-G-1, Jalan Medan PB 4A, Pusat Bandar Baru Bangi, 43650 Selangor

Operation hours: Tue-Sun; 8 am to 10 pm

Till we meet again :)

Congratulations on your engagement my dear Aisyah.

Girly Weekend - Part 1

Salam,

By now you should how 'tak boleh duduk diam' I am comes weekend. Last Saturday, I went on a road trip with the girls to Melaka. Yes, again. And actually, the places we visited, the food we ate, were exactly the same the last road trip. EXACTLY. But it doesn't matter if you have to do the same thing again and again, when you are doing it with your best friends.

We drove out of KL at 1 pm, after my test in Damansara. I told them to just go without me, since this was a day trip, I thought it'd be too late to go after 1. Things you do for friends- they were willing to wait for me, though it'd drag the trip to 1-2 am in the morning (we had so many eating places to visit!).

We reached Melaka at 3-ish, and our first stop was Jonker Walk! Went to Jonker88 to eat the famous laksa and cendol. Only during this second trip I realized that there are many other laksa/cendol outlets along the stretch, but people are willing to wait in the long lines for this particular one. I guess I can say we made the right choice.

Taken after we went back to Jonker Walk at night.

Saved my stomach the whole morning for this. 

But I remember it being better the last time I had it.

Oh my, I'm salivating just by looking at this. 

Nak cendol lagi!!

The crews. 

Coincidently Cik Wana had to attend a wedding in Jasin.

 Found her in Dataran Pahlawan and kidnapped her right away!

After touring the historic sites (not!) and Dataran Pahlawan (it's a mall btw), 

we went back to Jonker to eat lah what else :P

Calanthe Art Cafe! The interior deco is so artsy.

Hot brownie with ice cream!!

Sweet sweet sago with ice cream 

On the way out, I saw this. 

Rugi plak tak try, with me being laksa lover of all time.

A huge stage in the middle of nowhere.

What is a trip to Melaka without going to Umbai? Hehe

Just FYI, in case you guys are heading to Melaka anytime soon, there are three medan ikan bakar at the Umbai area-Alai, Umbai-Pernu(Umbai Lama) and Umbai Baru.

Yang banyak orang pergi, sampai parking tak muat-muat tu is Umbai-Pernu. 

And kedai yang kitaorang pergi ni, D'Muara. The first kedai.

*Fuuh talk like an 'insider' already. Sorry kalau salah orang Melaka sekalian*

See, same exact orders like last time! *If you read my dead blog lah that is*

Sotong tepung, ikan siakap-1/2 bakar, 1/2 masak masam manis, kailan ikan masin.

So, 3 cafe/restaurants from 3 pm to 10 pm. Kami memang suka makan. There were two other eatery we wanted to go to. I wanted to eat the sushi at this one small stall on Jonker Walk. Cik Zaf wanted to have this Arabian pizza we had last time. Thought of just tapau-ing them and eat while driving back. Guess we were too full we could vomit at the sight of anymore food. Haha. It's actually quite a crazy idea to 'khatam' 5 eateries given our limited time. We may be food lovers, but our stomachs are not that big you know. 

If we were to go to Melaka again, I know we would repeat the same cycle. That's why, girls, we should plan for Penang next! But first we have to make friends with one 'insider' dulu, baru senang nak pergi. An 'insider' is someone who knows the place well, know where good eateries are, know where to park the car with the least charge, and so on. So, any takers?

We headed back at 10.30 pm, all with sleepy eyes and bloated stomach *very dangerous*. As usual, I was the first one to doze off, sorry girls! Arrived in KL at 1 am, safe and sound. Special thanks to our drivers, Cik Hana and Cik Zaf. *Kalau nak harap I drive, dah ke laut kot. Yelah, belum pape dah tidur dulu. Sungguh tak guna*

The end of Part 1.

To be continued...