KFC Yam Rice

I was craving for something fried and crunchy. So at first I wanted fried potato patties from Mc D, but when we got there, they no longer have it in their menu. So I thought of KFC chicken rice and ordered my favorite KFC Yam Rice.

I don't think they have Yam Chicken Rice in KFC Malaysia and other countries but Thailand. Yet KFCs differ from country to country and I usually love to try their authentic menu. Beware if you order this dish though. If your tongue is like mine, ask the staff to serve it 'mai phet' or non-spicy because the amount of chillies on the default menu is way too spicy for me. Oh well, sometimes if I say 'may phet', it usually IS still spicy. So sometimes I say 'mai sai phrik' which means no chillies at all!

Boon Tong Kiat Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice

Boon Tong Kiat Singapore Chicken Rice is situated at soi 12/14, right opposite Villa Market at Thong Lor soi 15. From the name itself you can already guess what are their signature dishes.

We were glad that at last our cravings for Singapore chicken rice can be easily satisfied by going to this restaurant but we were yet to know how the services and food is before we could make any judgments.

As we stepped into the restaurant one evening, we noticed that it was really a typical Singaporean-Malaysian restaurant for the tables and chairs, the simplicity and basic diner's needs can be met once he/she is settled for ordering. In other words, before you even enter the place, you could see a place where roast pork, chicken and ducks are prepared right in front of the restaurant and inside you could see only a few simple squarish dining table and chairs, red floating chillies and grinned ginger condiments in jar bottles (I miss ginger condiments!) plus what tops it all as deco is the many food posters pasted all throughout the walls.








We expected some standard for it has the "Singapore" label where lions are carved in gold. To our surprise or not so much since we've seen lots back home was that the waitress were poorly dressed while taking orders, you know...shabby t-shirts, worn off jeans and rubber flip-flops (selipar jepun tuan tuan dan puan puan!). Well, we thought oh heck, as long as the food is good.

And we were right! The food was really good despite the slow service in between which I don't want to elaborate further. Let's take a peak on the food we ordered...

Steamed kaley in oyster sauce

Steamed chicken which comes with chicken rice and soup

Here's the seaweed soup that comes with any chicken/pork/duck rice

Fried wanton noodles in chinese style

Fried chicken noodles

Big portion at 110B so as the fried wanton noodles

A big mug of herbal drink at 25B

Besides its signature dishes, they also serve Sino-Singaporean food such as the famous rojak. As I mentioned earlier, the food outweigh the service. Prices are quite reasonable too. A whole boiled chicken is 360B and a roast duck cost 400B.

4 Seasons Restaurant

As we were strolling around Seacon Square, we noticed this Chinese-Thai fusion restaurant called 4 Seasons. In mood for some Chinese cuisine, we entered the place which welcomed us with a big golden "FU" pasted on the wall and noticed that there were several Thai-Chinese family and some just-out-of-work singles enjoying their dinner. Most of them concentrated on their food too much to hardly noticed other people around the restaurant. Thus there goes my first impression...thinking that the food must be good.

As we settled in a table way behind the restaurant, we started browsing the orders...*flip page*...pork...pork...pork...ahh! Chicken! I have to say, typical for most restaurants in Thailand and I guess other countries as well. A lot of what's on the menu are 'moo'. Well, as obvious as it is, I don't consume pork but would not get offended by people who do. To explain is another story...better get back to the menu!





Well, we finally made up our minds and I went for Congee with century eggs (I love century eggs and I love the smell, no complains) and Chicken soup boiled in chinese herbs which we call "Tun Kai" and the Thais call it "Kai Tun." Hobbit husband went for Roasted duck rice. As for drinks, we went for the chinese tea. :)

Not bad! The congee is softly-thick unlike the congees served at food courts around which turns out to be hard, watery and that you could almost guess the cook just dumped in cooked rice into a bowl of prepared broth! I also enjoyed the yummilicious century eggs and Tun kai soup! If I should mention the cons is that in the portions served. Too small a bowl and too little a plate! The price is close to reasonable but still...they need to justify the price with its serving portions.

Place: 4 Seasons, 1st floor next to Lotus entrance.

Suji Semolina

I love eating suji semolina. Our Indian family doctor had introduced us to this staple many years ago. Hence my family members have then fallen in love with it.

The simplest way to prepare suji is by oiling the pan and throw in some shallots to fry. Fry until the shallots is turning crispy then add suji according to servings. Stir-fry for 3 minutes and don't forget to add water to keep the suji moist. Then add pinches of salt according to taste. Add black raisins and stir the whole ingredients. Cover the pan for a minute and viola! It is ready to be served.

You can either served it with slices of banana or smashed nuts.

Good View Restaurant

Few more days to Chinese New Year 2008. Wow...I am already excited! So today I had the chance to accompany HHobbit to his annual CNY school dinner along with his colleagues. This time it is held at Good View Restaurant. The name gave us a hint of what kind of view we to expect --GOOD VIEW hehehe! Since we chose to drive, we got lost in several toll way before getting to our destination.

Sure enough, this restaurant has a spectacular view. It is located at the end of soi Tok and next to it is the well known Chao Phraya river. Wow! This can be a good place for a romantic dinner...

Anyway, after everyone has arrived, we started with the Yu Shang. I didn't get to stir for I was sitting on the far edge of the table (close to the river *_*) and then food started to arrive non-stop. The food we had were a mixture of Thai and Chinese dishes. Most of the food are delicious but some are just average to me. Here are some pictures!

Check out Good View's website here.

Kimchi Fried Rice

HHobbit likes to cook his signature dish Kim Chi Fried Rice. Here are his recipes:

2 medium bowls of rice
1 clove garlic
1 dried chinese chicken sausage (lap chiong)
100g fermented kim chi
1 T oil
1 T Thai fish sauce
salt to taste


1. Fry garlic in heated oil.
2. Dump chicken sausage and stir fry for 1 minute.
3. Insert Rice and fry until everything in the pan is mixed evenly with rice.
4. Insert fermented kim chi and stir until rice is well blended with it.
5. Add Thai fish sauce and salt to taste then stir evenly.
6. Cover and simmer for a minute.
7. Kim Chi Fried rice is ready to be served.

Jolly Recipe Site

Christmas holiday is approaching. To those of you who will have family and friends at home during this season, have you thought of menus for dine-together session? Or thought of baking or making something new for your guests? Well, to add on your recipe collection, check out Kellogg's Keebler Simple Holiday Recipes. You can enjoy various types of delicious recipe which no doubt will suit the holiday taste buds. We especially enjoy cooking with Paulette Mitchell! *_*

Other holiday recipes you might enjoy:
Hershey's Kitchens
Cooks Recipes
Fabulous Foods
Razzle Dazzle Recipes

Body Potato Side Dish

We love this recipe from Mike Geary. It is such a healthy diet!

Geary's Lean-Body Potato Side Dish

• Desired quantity of baby potatoes (I like to use this mixture I found recently at a health food store... it is a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes)
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 or 2 onions
• a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt)

Cut the baby potatoes into slightly smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Cook the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Stir it all together and serve. This is a delicious and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

Make Gyoza

Living in Thailand and have the love for Japanese Gyoza, it is hard to find decent Gyoza that we enjoy. When we say this, it means Gyoza served without pork. Yes, we don't eat pork. Back in Malaysia, we could easily find Gyoza made with chicken and beef meat. Sometimes if you are lucky, you will bump into outside stalls that sells vegetarian Gyoza...how lucky! So we thought making it ourselves could save us not only from eating what we don't intend to eat but also save us from spending/eating out! So, here you go...the ingredients! *_*

Ingredients:

• Dough
• 2 cups of Flour
• 1/2 cup luke-warm Water

Filling

• 1lb of Ground beef meat
• 1/2 head of Cabbage (cored)
• 3 - 5 cloves of Garlic (medium diced)
• 1/4 cup Ginger (medium diced)
• 1 bunch of Green Onion
• 3 Tbsp cup soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp mirin
• 1 Tbsp of Sugar
• pepper to taste

Dipping Sauce

• 1/2 cup of Soy Sauce
• 3 Tbsp of Rice Vinegar
• 3 Tbsp of Mirin
• 1 Tbsp of Sugar
• 1 clove of Garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 chunk of Gingerroot (finely chopped)
• Finely chopped Green Onion for color

Step 1:

Beef meat: Cook it off - it doesn't need to be browned but just enough to get rid of the majority of the pink. This'll also cut down on the amount of grease inside the dumpling.

Cabbage: Boil in salted water for about 15 minutes, then allow to cool. Chop into fine pieces.

Green Onion: Chop into small pieces.

Step 2:

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Allow to set for an hour.

Step 3:

Mix the flour and water together. Keep playing with it until you form a ball. I use a "packing" method myself - just start with the sticky dough in the middle and pack the flour onto it, then fold it over itself, squish down, and fold it again, then pack on some more flour and repeat (easier to do, than it is to read). When it is holding together, yet flakey, start pressing into a ball.

Next kneed the dough for about 10 minutes. Lightly flour your counter - you only need about a pinch. Take the dough ball and slam it into your counter, punch it a few times and try to flatten it out a little. Using the bottom part of the palm of your hands, start pressing the dough away from you. Be rough with it, you want to stretch it and give it a good work out. Fold the dough in back towards you and turn 90 degrees. Repeat this procedure for the ten minutes. After a few minutes you should start to notice that the dough is getting a bit more elastic and easier to press out. The dough is ready when you are able to push lightly on it with your finger and it'll bounce back into shape, has no more stickiness to it, and is soft and smooth.

Finally, cover the dough with a damp towel for 10 minutes.

Step 4:

Once your dough is ready, take it and begin make a dough snake. Best way to do this is to keep twisting and pulling gently on the dough. Every now and then roll it on the counter (like rolling a cucumber) to keep it at even width. You can also flatten the ball a bit, and poke your fist through the center and shape the wheel using a pulling and twisting motion; then cut the ring and straighten it (whichever method is easiest for you). Either way it helps to coat your hands in oil to help keep the dough from drying out as you work. You want the dough to be about an inch in diameter.

Step 5:

When you have your dough snake, cut it in 1/2 to 3/4 inch segments.

Step 6:

Take one segment (put the others under a damp towel) and roll it out into a thin sheet about 3 inches wide. Put a spoonful of the filling on it, and wet 1/2 half of the outer rim.

Step 7:

Fold the dumpling so that the ends meet, and press firmly to seal them. Then pleat the edges a few times to ensure a good seal. Repeat for the remainder of the segments.

Step 8:

Cooking the Dumplings

Heat some oil up in a pan, and place the gyoza on it with the folded side at the top. Brown the bottoms (3 to 5 minutes), then add 1/2 cup of water and quickly put the lid on. Steam them off for 5 minutes, then remove the lid. Let them fry for a couple more minutes, then carefully take them out of the pan.

Step 9:

Mix the dipping sauce ingredients together and let sit for an hour for flavor to mix.

Serve.

Ingredients taken from here. Changed the pork meat to beef meat. *_*

Indian Chicken Curry

We remembered a few years back in college, an Indian friend had taught us how to make Indian curry. So we thought that it would be nice to have curry for lunch today. Well, wanting something different from what we already know, we decided to try another Indian Chicken Curry that requires more ingredients from the ones that we used to prepare.

So it took us about 30 minutes to finish cooking and this includes preparation time such as slicing chicken meat, etc. Well, not bad. The result came out good. We hobbits had fun and of course finish the whole plate of four servings!

This recipe is provided by Natasha Levitan from food.about.com. This website has prepared a video of the whole preparation process. Take a look here.

Chicken Curry Ingredients

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 pound chicken
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 star anise
• 2 cloves
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 curry leaves
• 2 teaspoos crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoons crushed ginger
• 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• 3 cardamon pods
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 2 tablespoons curry paste

Combine the Spices

Heat oil in medium saucepan. Add to it cloves, cardamon, cinnamon, star anise, and curry leaves. Fry the spices until cloves swell and the curry leaves are slightly burnt.

Next, add the onion, ginger, and garlic paste, and fry until onions brown. Add curry powder and turmeric powder, and fry until oil separates.

Cook the Chicken

Add your chopped chicken pieces, and mix well with the spices. When all the pieces are evenly coated, put a lid on your saucepan, turn the heat to low, and cook until the meat is done.

Serve the Curry Chicken

Take the lid off, add chopped tomatoes and creamed coconut. When you're ready to serve it, add chopped cilantro and mix it all together. Serve it warm.