Cassava Raisin Cake

I was in the kitchen again with my mum to create this wonderful cassava raisin cake (木薯葡萄干蛋糕) this afternoon. That’s the recipe we got from the newspaper and so happened that my aunt brought us a huge cassava, a kind of tropical plant. This time I was going to be an assistant to weight the ingredients and preparing the oven and stuff. As we needed only 250grams of cassava paste, we used the left over cassava to make the pan-fried cassava (煎木薯糕). In the end, we have 2 dishes made from cassava. ^.^

The freshly bake cake


Look at the texture and the colour of the cake, soft and fluffy in the golden yellow. The cake smell great as there are huge amount of eggs inside.

pan-fried cassava

Recipe for cassava raisin cake (木薯葡萄干蛋糕)

Ingredients:
Butter 250g
Castor sugar 150g
Eggs 6
Cassava paste 250g
Self raising flour 200g
Raisin 60g

Steps:
Beat the butter and castor sugar until white and fluffy.
Eggs are added one by one into the mixture.
Add in cassava paste and lastly the self raising flour.
Mix them up evenly.
Raisins are added before sending them into the oven.
Then, bake at 170°C for 45minutes.

Margarine can be a substitute for butter if you dislike butter.

Italiannies, The Curve

It has been a long time I never indulge myself with delicious food after the lunch with Chingie in Piccolo Mondo. Firstly, no kaki. My fave kaki chingie is very busy with her assignments and tutorial works at the moment, so I dare not asking her to hang out together. Hence, I opt for my secondary classmates aka best friends, Dred and Yan. Alright I have to say sorry for pushing the lunch for weeks as I am not in the mood to go out at that time.

I have got my kaki and we have to set the venue next. We have chosen Marche. Oooh-oh. Yan couldn’t make it. Only me and dred are going. Once we stepped into Marche. Disappointment appears on our face. Our main purpose to come over is for desserts --- Cheese cake and Tiramisu. However, these 2 appear no where. Not on the dessert counter. No cheese cake. No tiramisu. We walked around the other food counter. I must say that we (us --- Me, Yan, Roy, Wen, Chi, Jian, Dred, Wye, Ho, Tham, Francis… erm… who else?!) have nearly tried all the food from the counter in Marche last year Chinese New Year. We dined in Marche for dinner after our trip in Genting Highland. The best things were the Cheese Fondue and those cakes. As for this time, we found nothing special and nothing new. Sadly, we then ran off bermuka tebal without ordering any food.

Anyway, the curve must have lots of food and special cuisine. We both circled the walk and ended up with Italiannies.

The environment around

Here come the complement breads and vinegar + olive oil. I called it as ‘welcome dishes’ like those restaurants serve peanuts or prawn crackers. The bread taste good. I find the whole meal bread has salty taste. Yum. Well, another ‘pai-seh’ thing happened. As this was our first time to dine in a kinda traditional Italian restaurant, we have no idea how we are going to eat this ‘welcome dishes’. We guess, just dipped the bread into the vinegar + olive oil. Hmm… that tasted great!

We scanned the Menu for a long time and finally ordered a few dishes --- Drinks, the appetizer, main course and desserts.

My fresh lime juice at RM 7.50

Ripe Mango shake at RM 8.50

After the drinks… And then…. We never thought of how huge is their serving and when the first dish comes, I am shocked! Oh my god, are we able to finish this HUGE plate of salad up?!

This is the Calamari’s Caesar salad (RM 24.90). A wide variety of vegetables topped with fried squids and the dressing.

Next is the main course, the pizza. I have never thought of the pizza is extremely LARGE! No eyes to see. I don’t think we both can finish these up as the dishes were for about 4 people. We still have 2 desserts (Tiramisu and Cappuccino Pie) behind. O.o

Smoked salmon pizza (RM 26.90).

Cappuccino pie (RM 12.90). The size is XXXL I think. That was totally different from what I saw in the Menu. Anyway, it tasted great and took me a long time to finish up my ‘ice berg’.

Tiramisu (RM 15.90). This tasted great too. A very traditional-liked dessert.

Errrr-hem… we couldn’t finish the pizza and very ‘pai-seh’; we had to take away the left over --- half of the pizza.

I have learnt a lesson from today’s meal. Firstly, we must look at our ability before ordering food. Second, better make sure how huge the portion is. Finally, if don’t want to do such ‘pai-seh’ things like taking away (da bao) food, better call or ask friends over for help --- finish the left over. Kekekeke.

As for conclusion, Marche is definitely out of my list if I still found no Tiramisu or cheese cake. Another thing, Italiannies is in my list now and I am going to pay another visit in the future. Nice food, yippie!

A Charity Auction Dinner

Menu for the dinner. There were fish, chicken, pork, prawn, desserts... Sounds great!

I have never been to the charity auction dinner and last Saturday was my first time there. I received a call from my aunt in the morning. She had another ticket left and asked me to go with her. So, I said okay without asking if they have any dress code and how would be the situation and stuff. When the time came, I found myself blank in front of my wardrobe. I knew nothing about charity dinner and stuff and planned to wear a knee length pants with Tee until I called my aunt again to make sure what to wear.

It was kinda early while we reached Thean Hou Gong so the place was still not crowded with people yet. It was a grand one which held by Autorr Foundation in Dewan Thean Hou. The card stated the dinner will start at 7pm but ended up at 8.30pm. Well, that would be usual among the Chinese community. Phew, luckily I called and made sure what would be the dress code. Else I think I would make my aunt ‘pai seh’. Everyone looked smart and well dressed. Ladies even put up their nice dress with lovely make ups.

At 8pm, the event started with dragon dance followed by speech giving from those VIPs. The first dish starts to be served at 8.30pm. While we were eating, there were singing and dancing. There came auction after the first dish. Oh, before I forget, the dinner fore each table costs RM 1888. The entire funds raised are going for senior citizens and orphans. The auction went wild and fun. People continuously put their hands up for stuff at high price. Everyone there were really generous especially those VIPs. The climax arrived when the few of them opt for a very nice, hand-crafted Chinese fan which is coated with copper and gold colour. The dishes came out rather slowly so we managed to ‘clean up’ the whole dishes before the next coming up. After the auction, there were lucky draws. However, we didn’t get to participate because we ran off earlier.

Eventually, the food was okay but doing bits for the charity make people happier.

Celebration of dragon boat festival in 'advance'

Here we are, Chinese rice dumpling （粽子）. They are one of the traditional Chinese foods which made up of glutinous rice stuffed with filling and wrapped in the bamboo leaves. They are then cooked by billing.

Although the 端午节, Dragon boat festival is still weeks ahead, mum has already made these for us (not us actually but for sister to has a try before she left Malaysia).

The filling are chestnuts, beans, pork, dried shrimps, dried scallops, and mushroom within the glutinous rice. I wish I am half as intelligent as mum in cooking. She always makes wonderful dishes for us. That’s why I get fatter >.<

Trip @ Part 3

01 May 2007

This was our final day. Sis and I woke up at 7am. Both of us hurried to the beach while others still in their sweet sweet dream. Another photo shooting session began!!!

***

Sob. Sad to leave the island. It has been a long time I never step my foot on the beach. In love with the Golden brown sand and the cool sea water. It was about 2pm when we arrived at Kuala Kedah. We then went for lunch and bought local delicacies, dodol in Pekan Rabu, Alor Setar. ^^

All of us filled up Aunt’s car and headed to Ipoh for dinner.

Our yummilicious dinner --- Seafood dinner!

Crab Crab (they were fresh as aunt's friend just got them from Taiping)

Steam fish

Steam Crab (taste juicy!)

my favourite again! fried prawn cooked with oat and salted egg.

Trip @ Part 2

V30 April 2007

We wanted a cable car ride which could bring us up to Gunung Mat Cincang. However it was too crowded and lined up with people. I have lined up for about ½ hour and when it came to my turn, the counter closed. The kerani told me they had to close ticket for about 40minutes due to the crowd. Alamak! Why they off ticket at this time!!! No cable car for us cause we didn’t want to wait for such a long time. Instead, we walked around and took pictures.
Then we went to The Loaf for lunch. I will highly recommend this place. It is a japaneses style bakery and bistro owned by our Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir. The Loaf has a great view in front of it and they provide highest quality of food and beverage. Of course, that meal was costly.

Let’s look at the view before going to food.

i wish i am the owner of these (the yatch & boat).

A variety of bread. All are my favourite.

The Loaf’s Caesar Salad

This tasted great!!! Lobster burger.

Chicken breast with mushroom sauce

Thai set of 4 dishes came with briyani rice.

Ice coffee latte. It was special because they poured the hot milk over the coffee cube and then added with ice cube.

Trip @ Part 1

I had a wonderful trip in Penang and Langkawi on 28th April till 1st May with my aunt and her 2 children, her friends and my sister (who was here for a week vacation). We overnight a night in Golden Sands Resort (by Shangri-La), Penang and 2 nights in Holiday Villa located at Pantai Tengah, Langkawi.

28 April 2007

Stayed at the highest floor which was at 7th floor and here is the view from my room. Lovely, right?! I love the beach and the sea. Besides, the facilities of this resort were at my satisfactory. The sea view was great.

Penang is well-known with delicious and mouth watering snack. Ate ‘Ang tou bing’ (red bean ice kacang), char kuey teow, popiah (but not as tasty as those in KL cz it was kinda wet. There was soup in it), loh bak as our lunch. The ‘Ang tou bing’ from this shop tasted not good, my aunt’s friend brought us to try out the real nice pure cendol + ‘Ang tou bing’ sold at one kaki lima nearby. Unfortunately, I have no photos on those yummy dishes.

Here is what I got, a pic of Loh bak.

On the way to where we stayed, we stopped by to buy fried snacks.

The two above are pisang goreng.
The round is fried ‘lv dou gao’ (fried green bean paste)
The huge one is fried ‘nian gao’

As for dinner, we dined in the hawker center situated in the town center. Food was great! We had laksa, rojak and a variety of seafood like crab, clams and oyster. (sorry, no pics too). Then we headed to another place for drink. Well, the drink was… ahem… liquor. Hehe.

***

29 April 2007

We had local food, laksa for lunch which was the well-known stall near kek lok si (temple). Before we left, we bungkus this along. ‘mua zi’ also one of my favourite. It is made by glutinous rice along with pandan leaf syrup and sprinkled with crunched mixture of peanut and sugar.

By time, we took the 3.30pm ferry ride to Langkawi Island. The jetty at Kuala Kedah stinks. Disliked the smell of that place.

Arrived at the langkawi’s jetty kinda late. Let me count, the ride was about 1 ½ hours. Therefore we hurried to the duty free shops shopped for goods. Look at me, how excited I am. There were full of chocolates behind me. Hohoho~