Nasi Lemak Tanglin

this morning, i had a check up with my dentist at Batu Caves. So, i followed my parent to their monthly visit to Pasar Borong Selayang earrrrly in the morning before they drop me off at Batu Caves. before tightening my braces, a must thing to do is to eat all you can since you can't enjoy it about 3 days afterwards (-_-). Abah drove us to Taman Bukit Perdana to have, well, the famous nasi lemak here, Nasi Lemak Tanglin. I bet most of us know about this place as this place has so many media coverage. It is located opposite to the health something2 building here. It opens during morning and evening until night and off during lunch hour on weekdays and only morning session available on the weekend. just enjoy the pictures below!

just look at the people queuing!!

just look at the nasi lemak containers here!!!!! so many right? how can they finish them all?

some of the lauk varieties sold here. I'm a little upset that they don't have ayam goreng rempah. well, that's Nasi Lemak Cikgu's (Kelana Jaya) specialties anyway.

the busy workers. they are fast!

it's time to take a look what we have. now is the moment of truth.

yours truly: nasi lemak with bergedil and ayam. couldn't finish them since the chicken is so big.

mother's: nasi lemak with squid and paru goreng.

father's: nasi lemak with squid and sambal limpa i think?

the crowd and ambience

Nasi lemak here is good (if they're not, there's no people willing to queue that long). the rice is in good texture and 'berderai'. but, for my own preference, i don't really fancy rice that 'berderai'. i like it if they are bit soft :P sambal is delicious but they put too little in my plate :( all together with 2 hot tea & iced milo are about RM 22. what do you think? it's about RM 6 per plate. is it expensive or ok with the price?

Ayam Paprik - quick version

hello all, been weeks since i last updating my blog. quite busy lately with overload works at the office and all tiresome when i reached home. too tired that i felt lifting fingers on my keyboard would make me tired some more. hehe. anyway, this is the simple & quick dish i made when i have limited stock in the fridge and a short time available. this dish should be rich with vegetables but like i mentioned, this is a quick version one but taste absolutely splendid!

chicken:
4 pieces of chicken - cut into smaller pieces
salt & turmeric powder
*mix chicken with salt & turmeric and fry. fry until about 3/4 cooked and not too brown. set aside.

paprik sauce:
5 shallots (i love shallots, that's why i use it quite a lot)
3 garlics
1 inch of ginger
*pounded them together
1 1/2 tbsp ground bird-eye chilli paste (*you can substitute it with red chilli paste if you not a fan of spicy)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp chilli sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
1/2 cup of water
1 stalk lemongrass - pound with pestle on its head to release flavors
3-4 kaffir lime leaves
salt & sugar to taste

vegetables:
carrot - diced
cauliflower - florette
long beans - diced
tomatoes - wedges
*vegetables are optional. doesn't have to put everything

method:
1- heat oil and add in pounded items. stir until fragrant and color turns a bit brownish.
2- add in bird-eye chilli paste. stir until chili is cooked by seeing an oil forms on the surface.
3- pour in all other items including hard vegetables: carrot, cauliflower, long beans. stir for a while for the ingredients to be well mixed with each other.
4- add in fried chicken pieces.
5- turn the heat to low and let the gravy simmer until chicken is fully cooked and vegetables are tender.
6- when chicken are cooked, add in tomato wedges and sliced onion, stir for awhile and turn off heat.
7- serve with hot steamed rice.

Telur Ikan Goreng Cili Api

another favourite! telur ikan or fish roe? yummmmms. i love love love love when you eating fish dishes and you found telur ikan in it! it's like founding a gold in a sand you know. aha, i'm being exaggerate again :P usually my mother buy this fish roe at her monthly trip to Wet Market. but, it depends, sometimes, they got they stock, sometimes they don't. but, the slight disappointment is that, the seller usually don't wash this fish roe and it would covered by the fish's blood. so, it would turn out reddish and affect the taste a bit :(

here goes the recipe:
fish roe - wash carefully as it very tender
salt & turmeric powder
*mix fish roe with salt and turmeric powder and fry til crispy and cooked. don't fry too long as the flesh would harden.

Sambal Cili Padi:
ingredients:
onion - sliced thinly
2 tbsp Bird-eye chilli paste
1 tbsp lime juice
2 stalk lemongrass - sliced very thinly
salt to taste

method:
1- heat oil in a pan. add in onion and stir until fragrant.
2- add in cili padi paste and stir continuously. be careful as the smell would get you sneezing.
3- add in sliced lemongrass and stir again until it soften. the reason i put lemongrass is to cover the fishy smell of fish roe.
4- pour in lime juice and season with salt. stir again until sambal is cooked.
5- add in fried fish roe and mix well. turn off heat and serve.

Ikan Bawal Goreng Cili

smell something fishy?


fresh small pomfret!!! if my mother or grandmama buy this type fish they would fry it as crispy as it can get. then mix it with stir-fry fresh chillies sambal.

recipes:
ingredients (for fish):
a kilo of fresh small pomfret
turmeric powder
salt
*mix fish with turmeric powder and salt. fry until crispy. set aside

ingredients (for sambal):
fresh red chillies - wash and blend to form paste
1 tbsp of bird-eye chilli paste (for extra hotness!)
2 tbsp lime juice
onion - slice thinly
salt to season
oil to fry

method:
1- heat oil. add in sliced onion and fry until fragrant.
2- add in chillies paste and continuously stir to avoid from burning.
3- pour in lime juice and season with salt.
4- keep on stirring until sambal is cooked. to know this, you can see oil is starting to form on the surface.
5- pour in fried fish and stir to let well mixed. serve.

this dish is very good to have a combination with any Masak Lemak Putih like the one here. yumms.

my mother usually get her fresh seafood stock from my hometown at Abah's side. my abah's hometown is at Banting, which near to the beach. so.....easy access to fresh seafood all the time! that's why my father always bring big box when we went hometown. its function is to fill with ice to keep the seafood fresh. too bad i'm not a big fan of seafood, i mean for the shell type like cockles, muscle and such. on the pricing, it depends somehow. because most of the seller here have many restaurants booked on their catch, so sometimes they charged it quite pricey.

some of the seafood varieties

the fish boats

my mother choosing and negotiating price

one tip where i get when accompany my mother buying seafood. when you buy them, pack it individually or porpotionly so you only need to get them out from refrigerator once and straight to your pan. because if you pack too many per pack, you have to soak it until it defroze, take some of them and keep the remaining in freezer back. this would make the natural 'sweetness' and 'freshness' gone. so, keep that in mind ok? ^^

Masak Lemak Putih Labu

this is another my favourite dishes. well, every recipe here is my favourite :P another simple dish yet sooooo appetizing. perfect for those who has limited time to cook. but, it takes quite some time to cut the pumpkin.

ingredients:
1 pumpkin - peel the skin and remove the seed. cut into cubes
coconut milk - the amount is depend for your liking.
turmeric leaves (daun kunyit)
half of handful dried shrimp (udang kering)
3 shallots - sliced thinly
1 fresh red chilli - sliced thinly
salt to taste

methods:
1 - heat coconut milk together with cubed pumpkin.
2 - add in all remaining ingredients, turmeric leaves, dried shrimp, sliced shallot and sliced red chilli.
3 - keep on stirring until boiling. you have to continuously stirring to avoid the coconut milk from curdle and burnt.
4 - poke pumpkin with knife/fork to test whether it has cooked/tender or not. to check, poke pumpkin with fork/knife, if they has cooked/tender enough, it would fall back. if not, it would stuck at your fork/knife.
5 - season with salt.

this is another authentic kampung dishes. it's perfect to be paired with fried salted fish and sambal belacan for lunch. oh my!

Gulai Lemak Cili Padi Ayam Kampung & Nangka

another entry!! this is my favourite ever!! my grandma's Gulai Masak Lemak Cili Api Ayam Kampung dengan Nangka. well, all food cooked by grandma are good. can't decide which is best :P but this one is a bit kampung authentic because it uses chicken which my grandpa's breed and nangka which a neighbour gave to my grandma. being Negeri Sembilan pure residents with majority of Minang people, of course you can't be separated with Masak Lemak Cili Api right? tell the truth, i don't really good with the exact recipes. i just took these pictures while helping my grandma cooking this. she sat on the chair and give me orders on what to do :P


this is home-grown chicken, nangka, 2 stalk of lemongrass and blended spices. if i'm not mistaken, the spices are:
shallots
garlic
ginger
galangal
bird-eye chillies (compulsory!)
fresh turmeric (optional, you can use turmeric powder as subtitution)

you mix the spices and chicken over the heat and stir until drier. chicken will release water when being heated up, so, keep on stirring until the water is dry and chicken & nangka are well mixed with the spices and fragrant.

then, pour in coconut milk. the more coconut milk you pour, the milkier & tastier it gets. but, mind the calories :P keep on stirring until chicken is cooked and nangka is tender. you have to continuously stir as to avoid the bottom from burnt.

so..this is the result..yummmms. looks delicious isn't it??

here goes, another close-up picture. oh no, and now i'm craving for this!! T_T

too bad, most restaurants that serve Gulai Masak Lemak Cili Padi aren't lemak enough for my preference. well, coconut is getting pricey these days, of course they want to cut cost. still prefer my grandma's. need to learn how to cook this ASAP!

Fig & Olive

first of all, sorry for not updating for long. my life been miserable a bit..hehe. i take many photos of food, it just that i don't have time to write up anything :P

so..here goes, i want to write a review about this restaurant, Fig & Olive. we went to this restaurant about month ago, at Sunway Pyramid. my first thought that this restaurant serves only authentic Mediteranean food, i mean like strictly to humus, couscous and such. but, they also got western touch like grilled items and spaghetti.

so..here goes the pictures:

the menu

the ambience

i forgot what drink i ordered. i think mine is mocha and bb's is cappucino

bb's: grilled chicken with spaghetti

mine: deep fried fish fillet with marinara spaghetti

overall i think, it's worth every penny to eat here. i really love the food here especially the spaghetti. the spaghetti sauce is soo yummy! it's not too sour or spicy, just right for my tongue. for fish, i think it's quite undercooked in the middle but still good. chicken is well marinated & tender. enough said, everything is good here. you should try too!