Green Tea Frappuccino

I am a green tea freak!
So get me Green Tea Frappuccino the next time we are in Starbucks!

Indian Achar Masala

My favorite pickle has to be the malay achar and the Indian masala mango pickle! Today, I managed to make Indian Achar!

Instead of using raw mangoes, I made like the malay use to make that is using carrots and cucumbers. Thanks to the ready made pickle masala!

All you need to do is add lime, mustard oil and pinches of salt to go with the powder. Then let it sit for a day or two inside a jar. I used a tupperware instead of a jar because I ran out of big jars. :(

Seaweed Soft Boiled Rice

The Chinese had this tradition of cooking congee or soft boiled rice when someone in the household is not feeling well/sick. This tradition was passed down from my great grandmother who then influenced my grandmother to my mother and now I caught "the flu"! Hutttchewwww! It was and is believed that congee increases the sickling's appetite and gives him/her immense energy leading to recovery. Sounds like its one of a kind in healing wonders!

So I had runny nose and wanted something tasty and soft, one else could I think of if not seaweed congee! Hubby makes bowls of tasty, delicious one. Could be that he inherited congee cooking from his father - the well-known congee master in SASS! :)

Ingredients:

A cup of white rice
400ml water
Seaweed strands in a packet
Knorr mushroom cube
Carrots (cut in small cubes)
Sesame oil
Maggie seasoning (optional)
celery strips (optional)

Directions:

1. Boil rice in a pot filled with water for about 30 minutes. Cover the pot.
2. When rice is boiling, add cube-cut carrots and stir evenly. Cover half the pot. Check and stir regularly.
3. After 20 minutes, add knorr mushroom cube. One cube should be enough since the carrots will give sweet taste to the rice. Stir regularly and evenly.
4. Reduce heat. Add seaweed strips according to your liking and stir.
5. Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, stir and congee is ready to be served.
6. Garnish with celery or add seasoning to bring out the taste.

Chokchai Steakhouse Bangkok

Chokchai farm and all the eatery outlets are no stranger to those of us that resides or once resided in Muak Lek, Saraburi. Imagine our excitement when we first discovered where the Bangkok branch steakhouse was situated at in Bangkok!

Upon deciding where to eat today, I suggested we go to Chokchai Steakhouse to give it a try! When we arrived, I was marveled by the steel mache displayed around the wall that looked like this:

Then the next thing was the natural elegant Woody feel inside the diner that looked like this:

Warm and welcoming, my not-so-hungry tummy then suddenly rung "appetite!" right after we walked in. Browsing through the menu, they had a big range of food listed on the menu. Most of it were of course steaks, then pastas, salads, several dishes, cocktails, fine wines and other beverages. As I scrolled through, my mind picked out several dishes to be ordered but sadly tummy only agreed to one. Thus I had the beef pepper steak and the rest of my companion picked honey chicken steak respectively.

The men finished their plate of honey chicken steak but for me, I could barely finish half of the steak (appetite was big but tummy can't take it anymore)and had to let Hobbit savor it all! Not enough with real food, we ordered dessert and if you have tasted Chokchai's ice-cream, you surely won't miss it out! Take a look at our orders...

Vanilla ice-cream coated with caramel and nuts


Plain vanilla


Mix fruit

Steak and ice-cream! The moment we walked out I felt 1 kg heavier! Haha! So, if you wish to visit, come with a big appetite and loads of stories because it might take sometime for the steak dishes to arrive IF you order and what more platters. :) I had a good time and surely will come back again for steak and cocktails *wink*!

Restaurant: Chokchai Steakhouse
Place: Prasarnmit PlazaNana Prompong (MRT: Sukhumvit BTS: Asok)
Price: Affordable to pricey
Hours: Recommended lunch-dinner

Chana Dhal Curry

Hobbit loves curry dishes. So today when I went to the kitchen and saw all the spices piling there, I thought okay, it's time for another Dhal take. So I dug deep into my fridge and see what combination would be wise to be cooked with the dhal or daal. Then I reached out for green chilies, onion, tomatoes, carrots, ginger and garlics. Too bad, I cannot give the exact propotion for this recipe for I let go and went for what my cooking instinct told me to do. Nevertheless, I know you home chefs, you have this instincts too right? :)

As I was halfway cutting and Hobbit heating the stoves, suddenly we smelled something rubber-like burning. I thought it must be the stoves but never in my cooking life heating stoves would release rubber-like smell. Then there was a spark! It came from the extension cord which was connected to the stove's cord. Hobbit quickly unplugged the cord and we watch the spark subsided with small puffing smoke! We could have burnt down the kitchen for all we know! Lucky enough we had an extra extension cord. Anyway, back to cooking...

To start with the cooking, I poured the soaked chana dhal and a mixture of masoor dhal into a half pot full of boiling water. I let it boil and simmer for at least 20 minutes (I don't have pressure cooker hence the time) while using the waiting time to prepare the combination and spices. Note that after 10 minutes I added the carrots into the boiling pot.

Now heat a pan and add olive oil and stir-fry the following ingredients: ginger-garlic paste, chopped onion, sliced green chilies, and tomatoes. For the spices, add sesame seeds, mustard seeds, cumin powder, tumeric powder and a pinch of garam masala. Stir fry these ingredients for a minute or two. Meanwhile, check the pot of dhal, add curry powder and salt to taste. Stir the mixture. Add a small cup of evaporated milk to make the curry thicker. The last step is to combine the ingredients in the pan into the pot and let everything simmer for a minute. Turn off heat and the food is ready to be served with rice.

Moon Festival

The date of the Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th moon day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. This year the first day of the 8th lunar month is August 31, 2008 and the Moon Festival is on September 14, 2008. Thus here we are...

feasting on durian flavored yellow yolked moon cake! Long live Tu-ti Kung!

Vegetarian Brinjal Curry

I don't know what is with me that I have this Indian food craving for almost 3 weeks already. Right now even Hobbit gets sick of helping me prepare all the Indian spices before I start cooking. I knew at the tip of his tongue that he wanted so much to blurt out "can we change the menu?" but can't help it since unconsciously I kept telling him about all the spices I recently learned about from the Internet and how it has somehow enriched my cooking skills. Maybe I should snap myself back to reality and get back to normal cooking?! But before that, let me jot down one of Hobbit's favorite brinjal curry that I made for lunch before I forget the ingredients the next time I want to cook it.

Ingredients:

2 long brinjals (dice into 4 parts about 1 cm long)
1 tomato (diced)
2 big chilies
1/4 cup fresh ginger (finely cut)
1/4 tbsp curry powder
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 tsp garam masala
a bit of mushroom sauce (optional)
pinches of salt to taste
a pinch of cumin seeds
1/4 cup e.v olive oil

1. Heat oil in a pan until hot.
2. Pour in ginger and cumin seeds and stir fry until fragrant.
3. Add brinjals. Stir fry and cover for 3 minutes.
4. Add in tomatoes and chilies.
5. Mix water and curry powder in a bowl and pour into pan.
6. Pour in evaporated milk, pinches of salt, mushroom sauce and garam masala. Mix well.
7. Lower heat. Leave it to simmer for another 3 minutes and turn off heat.
8. Serve with hot rice.

Japanese Potato Salad

We had our Malaysian potluck today at a friend's house. I was rather confused of what to bring and told one of our friend that I would bring whatever others won't bring. So Hobbit and I decided to just bring salad, something that would not give us too much hassle on Sabbath morning.

Here's the ingredients I use:

1kg potatoes
1 carrot
1 Japanese cucumber
1 red apple
Japanese mayonnaise
Pinches of roasted sesame seeds
Pinches of salt and pepper to taste

Remember to refrigerate before serving! *_*

Filipino Style Fruit Salad

Every time I am invited to a Filipino gathering, be it a birthday party, a farewell party or just a simple get together, I never missed this famous Filipino style fruit dessert they call Buco. I know back home many of the housewives love to prepare this dessert too but using slightly different ingredients. I have made it several times especially when attending our group potlucks but never once stick to one recipe. I like to modify a little bit to suit my liking. When I fixed this dessert today, I thought it better be in my blog for reference sake. So here I am!

Ingredients



1 1/2 cups whipped cream
1/2 cup condensed milk (also depends on how sweet you want it to be)
2 cans of fruit cocktail (drain syrup)
2 cans of coconut de nata (drain syrup)
1 cup of coconut flesh
1 apple (optional)
1/4 cup of raisins (optional)

Directions

1. Mix whipped cream and condensed milk together to a smooth texture.
2. Combine all of the other ingredients and mix well. Chill overnight. Easy peasy! :)

Kindie Teachers Fellowship Lunch

We went for a lunch invitation at the Chus. Scrumptious food and lovely fellowship! Too busy eating and talking that I forgot to take pictures of the food! :)

Celebrating the new school year. Swensens!

The lovely host sharing the cake

Zic playing with dry ice!

Dalah Restaurant Muak Lek

Daron was the one who suggested we go to Dalah Restaurant. Before going to the MSML, we actually planned to dine at Dalah but it was closed. However we insisted to go again and this time were we glad it was open and we were the only customers (you know ML!)!













Located not too far away from Muak Lek town (about 3km), Dalah is just next to a big open space go-cart track. According to sources, the owner of Dalah owns the track entertainment biz and have another restaurant biz somewhere around Thailand. Hmm, no wonder Dalah looked a lil' bit pricey for a small town. A "little" bit pricey it is but the food I can testify is just so scrumptious! With delectably Thai and American cuisine, who can resist from not coming back?? In Dalah, it's like you're surrounded by nature. Houseplants, ferns, Chinese evergreen...as if the owner knows how to zen up diners who are looking for a nice and quite place to enjoy their noon lunch and evening dinners...



A choiceful menu toppled with a friendly smile from a lady made us felt more than welcomed and at ease. As I browsed through, I thought I wanted to sample most of the dishes listed and not to mention that the rest of my food buddies were speaking of mouth watering dishes of too many! Well, the lady (we guessed she must be the owner) was kind enough to suggest what we must try on the menu! One of the many that we all went gaga over was Big Fish kapong fried in Thai herbal sauce. If you happen to visit, do try this dish. The sweet sour spicy taste sure will remain until flesh is all removed from the bones! I guess I'm beginning to exaggerate! Other dishes ordered were chicken salad (came in big portion), Thai coconut milk soup (perfect taste), and mix vegetables. As we were occupied with the food, I thought we kept blurting out compliments here and there.









Truly, we really enjoyed the evening and the food. If there is one bad to confess, I have to say it's the mosquitoes! You know how a jungle like place would be do you? Yet, the repellent provided was all we needed to keep the pleasure pleasant!

Thanks Dee & Darz for a lovely evening!

Mini Swensens Muak Lek

In fact I don't even know the name of this ice cream parlor Dee & Darz took us too. It's located in Muak Lek's town. While browsing the menu we thought ah! Look...they have Earthquake just like Swensen...they even have this...and have that! That's why as for now, Mini Swensen ML it should be unless someone can help me with the name! :)

As we stepped into this small ice cream corner cafe, we could feel the pink vibe all around us. In fact, it's not all about ice cream. MSML --for short, offer quite a number of stationary and cute hair accessories for sell. If I'm not mistaken, they even sell some cute ornaments!

cute glass!

The pink vibe! Yes, we sat on a cute white-pinkish painted with flowery table for 4 and browsed through the menu. The owner of the shop, seemed to be two elderly around their 40s-50s along with their high school daughter (spoke good English) apparently were indulging Thai soap operas before they sensed that there's customers! Parents continued gluing their eyes towards the tv while daughter dear took the orders.

I forgot who ordered what but these were the ice creams we enjoyed:

It wasn't bad afterall. In fact it was good! I love the jelly-like colorful garnish on my ice cream! It seems that ML ice cream lovers don't have to drive too far after all for the real franchised Swensens because MSML serves some yummylicious flavors too! Besides, this place is a good place to hang out, equipped with a/c, quite (except when owners are watching soaps), easy-to-follow-menu and inhance a bit of a shopping mood plus ice creams are twice cheaper! One thing, they should add music to the vibe or have they? :)

* The X means either finish or out of stock

*Look familiar?

*Creative!

I'll surely visit again if I happen to be in ML! This time I'll go for the earthquake! Only 59 Baht!