The simplest is always the yummiest!

My mom has been complaining that I never cook 'simple food' for Irfan. You know, dishes like Masak Kicap and Sweet n Sour. Not that I didn't want to, but I'm so used to adding in lots and lots rempah ratus to my cooking, that whenever I try to make simple Masak Kicap, it always turned out tasting weird.

Today, after getting sick of all the heavy raya dishes, I can't get my mind off the kicap dishes. So I made Masak Kicap Ikan Bawal for the little guy and I. And this time, I managed to really limit myself to the basic ingredients as per my aunt's instructions. Believe it or not, we both anak-beranak ate like there was no tomorrow! Heavenly I tell you.

Now, I better start preparing other dishes before the big guy gets home, or else I would never hear the end of it : "Kesian kita, makan nasik dengan kicap saja!".

Cooking Frenzy!

Since my biras posted about the food that she's been cooking this Ramadhan, suddenly I felt the urge to do the same so that I could get rid of the pictures from my phone. So here goes, in caca-marba order!

Same old dishes, ayam ayam ayam!

Trying out new way of making fried chicken. I think it tasted quite good, marinated with the usual garam kunyit, plus a bit of rempah kari Babas + Rempah Briyani. But then, it wasn't such a hit with the big guy, he still prefers the same old Ayam Goreng Rempah.

My mom's mean custard jelly, as Papakeechee put it! One of the little guy's fave deserts.

When there's so many leftover food, what to do with them? I chopped  the leftover chicken and boiled some potatoes to make filling for these fried sandwiches. It's a bit too oily though, any suggestions on how to fry them without retaining oil so much?

Lastly, my kuih sagu lembik which turned out edible after all. My mum even suggested I make some for raya nanti. Wahahaha!

I'm a cooking machine!!! What about you? Hehe.

The jelly that he won't eat!

I realized that I have not been posting any masak-masak entry this Ramadhan. But that does not mean that I haven't been cooking. We're not so much into outside food, sikit-sikit can lah  so I've been slaving myself in the kitchen, as usual, for the beloved guys.

Anyway.

Yesterday I came across this custard jelly recipe in Lady's blog and miraculously, I had ALL the ingredients in my stock to make them!

So let's go step-by-step. First, cook the jelly and separate them like this, with different colorings. Cool them off in the fridge.

And then stab stab stab sliced them into tiny pieces like this!

Cook your custard jelly and pour the colorful jelly in. Again let them cool off in the fridge.

While waiting for it to be chilled, sila kemas segala peralatan memasak ya puan-puan! Fyi, this is the part I HATE MOST!

In no time at all, your custard pudding jelly would be ready to be ngap!

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Sangat cantik kan! If you wanna try them too, hop over to Lady's blog for the super duper simple recipe.

Egg in A Hole

I'm sure you people have come across the egg-inside-the-hole-sandwich before. I don't know what it's called, but apparently it was featured in one movie before this.

Anyway, though I didn't have all the ingredients (read : cheese and mayo) in the fridge, I still wanted to make 'em for the big guy. So I made do with what we had instead. I used these for one set of roti telur : butter spread on the 2 pieces of bread, sprinkle a pinch of salt, lotsa black pepper, an egg and some chilie sauce.

Because the big guy was too lazy to take out the oven from the store room, I had to make do with grilling 'em in the microwave instead. It took foreeeeeeever to cook in the microwave, that I managed to iron a pair of work clothes for the big guy while waiting! But I'm glad I made it anyway.

Because? The big guy loves them! 

However, despite the presentable look, I still don't like it. BUT. If you like runny egg ala half-boiled egg, then you would love this. The big guy even asked me countless of times on how I made them. But since he loveeeeeessss 'em to bits, he can be sure that I would never ever tell him the secret of making the roti-telur-lubang-tengah. 

You know why?

Because it's gonna be add to the 'List of Things That You Can't Do Without Me'! Muahahaha!

Kerana Donut Enam Ketoi

Yesterday, it was decided that we would go to get the doughnuts I had been craving for, before it was time for bukak posa. As the big guy was starving once he got back home, I had to complete cooking all the dishes so he could eat before we went out.

He had been requesting daging dendeng since earlier this week, so that's what I cooked yesterday. While  the beef was frying in the pan, I came to the hall nak lepak2 jap. Only to catch the big guy red-handed trying to ... LEAVE A COMMENT at Beautifulnara's blog. Hoyeh hoyeh! Laki haku dah mula nak berjinak dalam dunia blogging oh-kay! So don't be surprise if you guys come across The Drama Dada blog pulak after this. Hahaha!

Anyway.

I'm going to leave you guys with the doughnuts pic to drool over. We went through such horrible,horrible traffic to get it. Our car also buat hal tengah jalan, but the journey had go on. Because I CRAVED FOR  SWEET SWEET DOUGHNUTS GODDAMNIT! We arrived at J.Co just in time for my break fast in the car! Lapaq kebuloq dah that time rasa macam nak telan 6 ketoi sekali ngap!

Semuanya ku harungi demi keranamu Incik Donut.

The carnivores of my life!

If I could classify the big guy into an animal class, I would sort him into the carnivore class. That's because he only eats meat, and never vegetables! So I was only too thankful when the little guy turns out to be herbivore. This boy not only loves eating meat, he also gives his veges undivided love and attention they need. He can eat fresh tomatoes just like that. Carrots toksah kata lah, it's like cikadees to him. I never had problems making him eat the vegetables. Well, at least not until.... NOW!

Most of the time I would include tomatoes, carrot and potato in his soup. And he loves them all the same. But this time I just wanted to change the menu a little bit, so I included cauliflower in the soup. Oh this boy hates hates HATESSSS them! He can detect them even in the smallest pieces and would shriek "FLOWER TAKMAU!". He even went to the extent of picking them out from the spoon every time I tried to smuggle them into his mouth. I hope he won't turn into his father soon.

Oh son! For the sake of human kind, please stick to the herbivore class. I simply can't handle two carnivores in my life!

Briyani Bombay

Last night, the big guy and I were talking about food in bed. It was basically about how sick we were of eating the same type of dishes every week. We're chicken people so when it comes to home-cooked meals, it's always chicken, chicken and chicken with us!

While discussing, we both got hungry and so I went to the kitchen to fry some Ayamas CHICKEN for supper.  It was almost 12 midnight ok! This is the reason why we get fatter everyday! Anyway. While in the kitchen, I rummaged through the groceries stock and found this :

It's rempah briyani given by my MIL long long time ago, and gonna be expired soon. So it gave me an idea on what to cook for dinner the next day. CHICKEN BRIYANI! Yerp, chicken again. But at least not our typical ayam masak merah-nasi lemak-nasi ayam kind of dish. I will definitely muntah hijau if I have to cook the same thing again in the near future.

Anyway.

Berbekalkan recipes from here which I altered according to the availability of ingredients, I made chicken briyani. Both rice and the dish. Of course I had to make do with the limited ingredients available in the fridge, as it was an impromptu decision. But it turned out so much better than the first time I made them during Ramadhan last year. I could almost fool myself that it was store-bought instead of home-cooked. Almost, but not quite. Hehe. But then again, upon request the big guy bought some dhal from mamak, so perhaps the meal tasted store bought because of the dhal! And here I am dreaming to open a  restaurant specializing in chicken briyani! Just because my briyani was edible. Haha!

Briyani with sayur buncis? Hantam sajalah!

The little guy loved it so much that he ate 3 plateful of rice throughout the day. His Barney plate, that is. Oh, can you see him parking himself strategically at the dining table? He's not aiming for the briyani though. It's the orange juice that he was eyeing.

Kesian! His mother had to tell him loudly "Amboi amboi! What did Abah said earlier? TAK BOLEH MINUM AIS!!! NO NO NO!", while  discreetly smuggling a bottle of the juice for him. Hihihi.  Please don't tell the big guy ok, uols!

The weirder, the better!

Nowadays, I really run out of ideas on what to cook for dinner. I'm getting sick of cooking and eating chicken all the time! Kalau lah boleh makan pasir, dah lama I masak pasir ngn batu tau! To make matters worse, I'm not a fan of seafood, thus it narrows down the choices of meal to cook to an awfully limited choice!

Then yesterday I came across the dendeng recipe from this hot mama's blog, and decided to give it a try. I coupled it with the dhal which recipe I posted some time ago. Though it is a weird combination, mamak meets minang, but I simply love them!

Lepas ni, boleh try weird-weird combination some more! Any weird combination you guys tried so far?

Bila suami ambil alih tugas...

Rentetan dari enty ini, once in a while when the husband do something out of his usual routine, it makes the wife feel much appreciated. Feeling like she's not burdened with the household chores all alone.

So husbands out there, instead of putting expectation that once you're home everything will be ready on the table for you, why don't you take over being a chef in your wives' kitchen once in a while. That'll surely bring your wives to the 7th heaven. Maknanya bini hangpa nanti sonok tak terhingga la kan!

And I have to admit, the husband makes a great cook! I ate the Ayam Masak Kicap sehingga menggonggong tulang!

Where can you get a nice Thai cuisine in Penang?

Mengikut tips dari seorang blogger yang boleh tahan hebat di mata saya, jangan lah tiap-tiap hari kita menulis pasal benda yang sama. Nanti readers muntah hijau dok baca benda yang tuuu ja. Makanya hari ni saya nak menulis tentang benda yang hanya once in a blue moon saya tulis dalam blog ini.

Where to get a nice Thai cusine at a reasonable price in Penang?

Ok, just like in other states, there are gazillions of restaurants here offering Thai cuisines like tomyam and the likes. Similarly, not all of them are worth eating. I've ate at some restaurants where all I could say about the food is, ermmmm, well.... starvation is a much better prospect than stuffing yourself with those food.  

Luckily, Bangkok Tomyam, the place where we had our dinner last night, didn't fall into that category.

This restaurant is located at Jalan Mahkamah, the exact road where the Bayan Lepas night market is held on every Monday night. If you need a landmark yang lagi kebombom, it's located on the same road as Man Borong, the huge shop selling all sorts of stuffs including pashminas, blouses, begs, shoes and knick-knacks. Orang Bayan Lepas sure knows where Man Borong is located, right?

So let's see what we had at Bangkok Tomyam.

We were starving, but not so starving that we could eat a horse. So we ordered something moderate, enough for three. Perhaps Irfan got a hunch that we didn't order anything to his liking, except the Milo Ais, so he hatched a plan to embarass mak bapak dia. What he did was very unsangka-rable, that I felt like hiding myself behind the tiang after it was all done. 

Nak tau apa dia buat?

He stood up on the chair, turned around, saw the yummylicious chicken chop with chips on the table behind us and suddenly without any warning, pointed to the plate screaming "NAKKK TUUUU!!! NAKKK TUUUU!!!"

 Motip gambar? Not to show muka mak bulat, but to show the victim's family at the back!

Worse thing was, the sweet aunty eating the dish smiled at him and asked her daughter to pass a fries to the little "cute" boy, as they put it. Mak datuk, time ni I rasa nak masuk keta cabut balik. But since I couldn't drive, I had to wait at the table with a kelat smile for hubby to come to the rescue. I even thought of telling the nice lady, "Sumpah makcik, saya tak ajar anak saya buat macam tu" sambil piat telinga si kenit nih! Haha!

Anyway, since we were afraid he would ask for more from the aunt, we ordered a plate of fries for him. A plate like this cost a freaking RM5. Ok lah tu, complete with mayo and sauce, takkan nak juai lima kupang kot?!

And we had these.

Penangites would call this teh ais ceroi (cair). Next time, I better stick with the hot drinks, or the juice varieties. However, the boys did not have any complains with their nescafe tarik kurang manis + Milo O Ais.

 The kailan was fresh! And the ikan masin included was just the right portion, thus making it the most savored dish on our menu that night. Telur dadar was ok.

Ayam Masak Pedas was superb...

And Daging Merah was  marvelous!

For a total of RM29, I would say it's a meal worth eating. Taste wise = delicious. Portion = more than enough for two adults and one preschooler. I haven't eaten like this for a very long time. I felt so full that if any of you had tried to prick my tummy with a pin at the moment I was done eating, it would surely exploded like a giant hot air balloon. With yucky green slimes splattered all over your faces. Haha!

No more such dinner for at least a month from now, or else I would turn into humpty dumpty in no time at all!

A Sudden Craving

I craved for nasi lemak last night, so I woke up this morning with a strong determination to make nasi lemak for lunch. But as usual, I spent too much time doing other things that the nasi lemak was only ready to be eaten for dinner, instead of lunch.

Ok lah, at least tak la kempunan going to sleep to night thinking of it.

Another thing that I've been craving for is the lempeng kelapa I saw in one of the blogs I blog walked to a couple of days earlier. Must call mak to ask how she does it, and so tomorrow we shall have lempeng, boys! Nyummmm!!

Special Something

Today was supposed to be spring cleaning day, but I got hooked up on doing laundry, and something special - made with love - for the boys' birthday. Here's a sneak peak of it...

Can anyone guess what these are? ;-)