My De-Stress Remedy

Shopping, eating and baking are always my de-stress remedy! Since my exam is drawing near and all my mid term tests ‘clump’ together in these few weeks, I really have no time to do some crazy shopping or dining out. What I could do at home --- BAKING!

Food is always part of my life and so do the desserts. As I promised to update pictures on the nice round cake in my previous post on Japanese Cottony Cheese Cake, here are some of the photos taken today and sorry for the delay…





The Cottony Cheese Cake looks so good in the round pan. I was really happy with the round pan my mum bought. This cake was freshly baked in this evening and guess what?! We have wholloped half and left the remaining half for breakfast tomorrow!

Due to the lack of lemon juice, I substituted it with 3 big table spoons of orange juice. It turned out soft, fluffy and tasty as well!

Each bite just melts right in your mouth!

For the cottony cheese cake lover, do try a hand on this adapted recipe (here). it is very easy to follow and bake ~

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Crystal House Cafe @ Mahkota Cheras

I once asked my friends, “How would you describe ‘Snow Beer’”?

‘Snow + beer lo.’ A simple answer I got from a friend.

‘It was kinda like ice blended but the ice is much softer than the ice blended type.’ Described Yan in a more in-the-heart way.

‘Duno la, dunno how to describe, it looks special to me and it worth to give it a try’ answered Roy in a very blurry way.

‘A type of beer, nothing special, you can get it anywhere’ claimed Jimmy. He said he had them in Sydney before. @.@

Those were the simple answers I got from my friends. Meanwhile, I am really cracking my head, trying to define and describe what actually the snow beer is.

The 2 beer-y people, Ken and Roy brought us here in the night, for a little chilled out, and a little get-together and a small gathered-up farewell for our friend, Yee Meng. (It was not just Lok-Lok only for farewell, we also had the yum cha type for every of our friends who are leaving to foreign countries!)





Ta-da. Crystal House Café. We were here for a try out on snow beer. 2 beer-y people said it is special. Why not just head down and have it a try?






One of our friends had this which I have forgotten what that was.





Also this, must be some kind of tea with pearls?!





We had some beer too. (Of course! That was the main purpose we were there! Thanks, Yee Meng for the treat ^_^)






Freezing glass from the cool freezer. This may be a clear glass or may be a glass with a little of thin icy ice adhered on the wall of the glass. Not sure as I was too sleepy and tired, couldn’t open my eyes BIG BIG enough.






And here was my glass of foamy beer. When the waiter poured us the beer, it turned frothy from liquid. First sip --- it was very foamy, quite different from others. There were blended of fine tiny ice as though the snow touched right on your lips. It was not very cold or warm. It was Just at the right cool temperature that soothe your throat and down to your stomach.


Besides beverage, we ordered also snacks to go along with our snowy beer.




This fried squids has my votes. The fried squid may seem normal but it is fried with oats and chili padi. They all had the fried squid while the left over of fried oats and chili padi was finished up by me myself alone. Hehehe. Imagine the aromatic spicy oats… hu-la-la. Maybe I can try it at home?!

Then this fried chicken.


‘Yum Sing’ cheers to our friendships. This was quite a right place for small chat and get-together. Besides, I find the snow beer was quite interesting. At least, it was my first time having this snowy foamy beer. It is special or not, depends on you all. ~

Crystal House Café
No. 1, Jalan Temenggung 13/9,
Bandar Mahkota Cheras,
43200 Cheras,
Selangor
Tel: 03-90103001

Lok, Eat & Farewell

February seems to be the month of everything. As Chinese, we have the 15 days of Chinese New Year (but only few days holiday. Sigh). For the love birds out there, you have Valentine’s Day, and also the Chinese Valentine’s Day which marked on the Day 15 of Chinese New Year (also Chap Goh Mei). Also, this is the month to farewell most my friends going to and back to Australia. I have bid farewell to Yen on Monday night and the other friend, Yee Meng from Surian gang.

As tradition, we would have farewell party to get-together before any of our friends leaving to further their studies in foreign country.

And this time, our friend’s parents were generously catered a Lok-Lok van to have a Lok-Lok dinner party in the house. Yes you see it. We could full up ourselves with unlimited of Lok-Loks. This time we had the Fatman Steamboat. It was very much different from my previous experience. There were more choices and wider range of food.

Here are some pictures which I could capture. aiks… sorry, I was busy feeding my stomach. But overall, the variety available was roughly the same as those appeared in my previous lok-lok experience.

Ap giok bao. That’s what the owner of this vendor told me.






Sticks of tako which were my favourite. The tako was well-seasoned in the very Japanese style and the size of each was big too!





Brown sotong





Fresh mussels













There were also fish balls, meat balls, and some other common ingredients. But I could say that, once you ‘Lok’, you can’t stop.






Here, A wide range of sauce. How would you like to have your food taste?! It’s Up to your choices!







Additional of a little of sesame oil, an adequate amount of satay kuah, sweet sauce boost up the taste! You can add in a little of chili sauce if you like spicy (that’s what I learnt from the vendors). Try it and these do create an aromatic and delicious Lok-Lok.





Yee Meng, farewell!

Aiks… once all my friends going back to Australia, there will be lesser kaki(s) here.

CNY Reunion Dinner

Dear Readers, how are you celebrating your Chinese New Year?! It must be a great celebration you all have and some even might still in the holiday! My CNY was okay but I have not have enough holiday as my class restarts today. This is too soon! I hate this and I want more holidays!!! I haven’t rest enough!

Well, then, let’s talk bout the CNY I had. This year, there was reduce of house-to-house visiting among my relatives. The only meal together was the reunion dinner on the day before the CNY day 1. It was actually like a pot luck where each family bring something and have it together in one of our houses. ^^ I did enjoy my dinner a lot as I had those mouth-watering delicacies prepared by all my aunts.

The fried spring roll，炸春卷 prepared by eldest aunt. Yes, the spring rolls symbolize the coming of spring season.

Next, my aunt’s fave --- Arrowhead with lots of the greeny vege ，芽菇芹菜 (sorry, I dunno what it is in English). I took only those cutie arrowheads. Not the greeny vege.

Another one was the meatballs cooked with sea cucumbers, carrots, and salted cabbage. The minced meat was well marinated and shaped into balls. That was so yummylicious.

Broccoli with whitish scallops.

Chicken, ‘bak zham gai’ which was a must have during the reunion dinner. It came along with the dipping sauce which was a mix of soy sauce, oyster sauce and large amount of fried shallot.

Braised mushrooms, dried scallops and yu piu ，焖冬菇干贝鱼漂 . Normally we would have braised mushrooms and chicken feet. But this, the chicken feet had substituted with yu piu. The aromatic brothy gravy was great to go with a bowl of rice.

My youngest aunt prepared this stuffed tofu pok.

Finally was the braised belly pork with yam，芋头扣肉 prepared by my mum. Hulala… The belly pork was specially selected early morning in the market. It has to be fried and then marinated for a day before this was made. It is not an easy task to prepare this dish.

The fine texture of belly pork with the even proportion of fats melted right away in the mouth.


I am salivating while typing this. I miss the reunion dinner a lot; the food, the family members and the get-together!

Happy Monday blues…

another Festive Season!

Dear Readers, Friends, Bloggers, Food Bloggers:

Wishing all of you a very prosperous
Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy 2008, happy Rat year, Happy Holiday

& Eat Fat Fat lar ~

Yuzu 柚, The Gardens

I was feeling happy all day. Even I had dispensing laboratory test on that day, I was calm and cheerful and lively all day. During the lab, I did my report and procedures well. I was able to calculate the amount required for the prescription and detected the under dose problem in the given prescription. I was able to compound the products required… things went so well not until I faced the technical error in using the sintered glass filtered. Ended up, my product was flushed with the water coming in from the tube. Sigh… I had to re-do everything again. Never mind, just re-do it fast. Sadly, time did not allow me to do so and I got a zero mark for my lab test.

Just forget about the sad case I had. That night, right away after my lab, I hung out with my best-ies, Christine and Yen for dinner. It has been such a long time since my last dinner with them. And we were going to indulge ourselves with a lavish dinner.







We have yet dined in here and it was my suggestion to have our dinner here as me and Christine have been craving for a good Japanese meal after the text-messaging a week before.

Here we were in Yuzu.

Everything looks stylish and modern and trendy. And honestly, 3 of us were overjoyed for the very fine ambience in Yuzu. Besides, there were not much customers at time we were there. So, we could really enjoy ourselves in this quiet peace environment.

But the temperature in there was too low. We were chilled and hungry once we were seated. That increased our desire for more food.

3 of us decided to have set meals upon the recommendation from the waitress and had them sharing among ourselves. Since the waitress said that each meal was just enough for one person, we then ordered 3 sets but … full up after the dinner.

Let’s have a look on the sets.

Yen ordered the Katsu Nabe Taki Komu Gohan Set　カツ鍋炊きこみご飯御膳 which was priced at Rm25. It came with Braised deep fried chicken cutlet and braised rice served with egg custard, 2 small appetizers, pickles, salad and fruits.

The braised deep fried chicken cutlet was tender and doing well with the extra onions slices and eggs on top.

The ‘Pot-ful’ of braised rice which was really large in portion. We could hardly finish them.

Next was Christine’s Unagi Maki Sushi & Kaminabe set 鰻巻き寿司＆紙鍋セット priced at Rm 35. There were the Rolled Japanese eel sushi (which is our favourite too!) and glass noodles with vegetables and soup in paper pot served with egg custard, 2 small appetizers, pickles, salad and fruits.

Hu-lala… the hot piping soup (kaminabe 紙鍋) definitely good to warm our tummy as it was really chilling cold on where we seated (but that’s the warmest place according to the waitress).

The Rolled Japanese Eel Sushi had our votes.

The Unagi was grilled with thick sauce flawlessness and matched perfectly with the rolled sushi.

Finally came in the largest set, that’s my set. Hehe. It was the Sushi & Tempura Gozen寿司天婦羅御膳 which was priced at Rm 38. there were Assorted sushi and tempura served with egg custard, tea pot soup, 2 small appetizers, pickles, salad and fruits.

Clockwise, (1) fresh green salad in nourish and sourish dressing. (2) One of the appetizers I like the most. It was the fish which was tangy in flavour and it could really increase your keenness in this set meal. It was so lip-smacking good! (3) And another appetizer which was the preserved raddish slices (I supposed). (4) Silky smooth egg custard.

Pickles

Look at this cute teapot. Isn’t it adorable?! Yes, the soup (tea pot soup) was really sweet and light in essence and spiced up with the right amount of mushrooms and Enoki mushrooms.

Main for the set --- Assorted Tempura

Another main for the set --- Assorted Sushi

The dinner was an enjoyable one. However, 3 of us were really full and couldn’t go for their dessert. A revisit is a must for me but not too soon. Wanna compliment a little on Yuzu’s staff. They are really polite and friendly. Chinese New Year is coming soon. Wishing you all an enjoyable and a prosperous Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! ~



Yuzu
T 236, 3rd Floor,
The Gardes,
Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-22847663

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