Feasting in Penang & Hat Yai

This is a long overdue post. Have been lazy & busy with other stuff. :P

My parents, Jerome & I drove up to Penang then to Hat Yai for a few days in December last year. And look at what we ate!

This is perhaps the most famous Penang Laksa stall in  Penang!

Finally the bowl of authentic Penang Laksa that I've been dreaming about for years!

Tasty thick white noodles in a sour & spicy soup base with lots of kamong fish meat. 

The laksa noodles tasted really great, totally different from the ones we usually eat in Singapore.

The softest muah chee we have ever eaten...

This is the muah chee hawker who has a facebook account. 

Seafood at Bukit Tambun...

The real reason why we're here- the giant grouper's head! 

Green Mango Calabu... that's what I call a real appetizer.

Stir-fry lahlah with ginger & spring onion.

The best chilli kangkong we've eaten...

Fried Crabs with Curry Paste

The highlight of the meal- steam grouper's head. This is actually a quarter of the entire fish head.

This is really the star of the dish- the thick fish skin. Well, I still prefer the flesh.

Here's the address if anyone wants to visit the restaurant.

What about some fruits after dinner?

A fruit stall at some dark corner...

 First, pick a stick of fruits...

Then dip it into either the spicy or non-spicy rojak sauce.

The price list...

When you're done, just pay according to the number of sticks you have accumulated.

The next morning, we had dim sum at Chao Quan. Think they have easily over 100 variety of dim sum & dishes. 

A wonderful version of fried carrot cake.

In the afternoon, we made our way to Hat Yai, Thailand.

Uncle Yao brought us out for many meals... 

More chinese than thai...

Fish head steamboat... somewhat like what we have locally.

Fried oyster with eggs on hotplate. This is the dish that still get us talking...

I don't usually eat the oysters as I find them rather fishy but these oysters here were really fresh. 

They're big, fat and juicy! Pardon the oil, this is really a great dish.

Jerome was saying that we can visit next time just to eat this dish!

After all that feasting, we decided to go for something light for breakfast. 

Pork porridge that was surprisingly good :)

Then we decided we should have some Thai food since we're in Thailand...

Fish Otah in a bowl that's really goooood!

Most important- the Tom Yum Goong! 

We went shopping at the local market and tried some of the food from the street vendors.

Sticky Mango Rice.

Thinking of when we can eat visit again...

Nasi Lemak

I asked Jerome what he liked for lunch and he said Nasi Lemak so...

Nasi Lemak- Fragrant coconut rice with stir fried sambal french beans, fried chicken midwings, fried crunchy fish, ikan bilis, peanuts, cucumber, sambal chilli and a sunny side-up :)

Nasi Lemak

Fish Porridge

It's been a cold rainy day... It's actually starting to feel cold in sunny Singapore. A bowl of fish porridge is just perfect for such a night and after we had too much guilty food :P

A bowl of hot fish porridge garnished with spring onions. 

I guess adding some deep fried shallots won't do much harm, right?

Pineapple Fried Rice & Thai Green Curry

Just prepared pineapple fried rice & Thai Green Chicken Curry for dinner. Had wanted to take a few more better pictures of them but Jerome can't wait to start eating... It is not the first time I had cooked this combination for dinner but it was a long time ago. He said he missed my cooking...

Had wanted to sprinkle some pork floss over but Jerome likes the original flavour.

Opps! The sausages are a little charred...

Thai Green Chicken Curry. 

Should have added some green peas but realized that they have expired :P

The curry mix that I used... 

Just add evaporated milk, chicken and mushrooms...

Pineapple Fried Rice

Just prepared Thai style Pineapple Fried Rice for dinner using a recipe from "Thai Home Cooking", a cookbook I've borrowed from NLB. Had wanted to cook Tom Yam soup but the recipe was missing from the book. Someone had apparently torn out the page with the recipe. Some people are just being so inconsiderate. Actually, I would consider a theft- taking something that does not belong to u.

Anyway, back to the pinapple fried rice, Jerome was totally impressed with it. Maybe it was because I served the fried rice in the pineapple itself. It definitely looks very appetisiing & impressive :P Tastewise, I'm glad that it taste as good as it looks. Jerome said that it was better than the last pineapple fried rice that we've had from a Thai restuarant... Yummy! I couldn't agree more. I should have cooked more rice.

To complete the Thai meal, I served Thai Green Curry & made Mango Ice-Blend. Now, it's a perfect meal!

Jerome's Bigger Half of Pineapple Fried Rice

(Jerome said that this photo didn't do justice to the pineapple fried rice...)

My smaller half of Pineapple Fried Rice

Now, u get a better view of what's in there?

Recipe for Thai Style Pineapple Fried Rice

(adapted from "Thai Home Cooking")

(serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 cup of white rice, cooked

1 pineapple

(cut half lengthwise, cut/scoop out the pineapple flesh, pineapple shells to be used to serve fried rice in,

keep about 50g for pineapple fried rice, the rest can be for other uses)

1 tbsp oil

1 chinese sausage, cut into small cubes

1 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp curry powder

1/2 tomato, remove soft centre & cut into small cubes

1/2 red onion, chopped coarsely

2 tbsp rasins

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp light soya sauce

Method:

Heat oil in wok & add in the sausages. Stir fry for a minute & dish up. Set aside.

Add the butter & curry powder to the wok and fry till fragrant.

Add the cooked rice & mix well.

Add the rest of the ingredients & stir fry for a few minutes.

Add seasoning & mix well. Dish up & serve the pineapple rice in the hollow out pineapple.

Top the pineapple fried rice with some pork floss if desired. (I did!)

Enjoy your pineapple fried rice!

Kai Yang (Thai Aromatic Baked Chicken Leg)

I was at Cold Storage doing my marketing earlier this week & saw the Asian Home Gourmet series of premixes on sale (Buy 1, Free 1), so I decided to give the premixes a try. I don't foresee that I'll be squatting in the kitchen, pounding the ingredients & spices with a stone mortar & pestle, like the little nonya just to prepare a dish. So the premixes are a great idea for me to cook up some new dishes at home.

Thai Aromatic Baked Chicken Leg served with Hainanese Chicken Rice

Premix of Marinade for Chicken

Premix for Hainanese Chicken Rice

The baked chicken legs marinaded with the premix Thai spices are really aromatic, especially with the smell of tumeric (yellow ginger). I just had problems getting rid of the yellow tint on my Lock & Lock container where I marinaded the chicken. The marinade in the pack was for marinading up to 900g of chicken, that's about 4 chicken legs. I only used it to marinade 2 chicken legs which explains why it's a little too salty :P But it's still good to go with the rice.

As for the Hainanese chicken rice premix, I've only used 1/2 of the pack as the pack was meant for 4 servings. I still prefer the "Prima Taste" premix that I've used previously. It's more fragrant. But maybe if I use the entire pack, it'll be more fragrant? Let me try & we'll see...

Now, I still have a pack of Premix for Thai Green Curry to try out...

Japanese Curry with Pork Cubes

After a lunch of Katsu Chicken, I followed up with a Japanese Pork Curry for dinner :P Today is Japanese food day! Personally, I would have preferred to use chicken meat. Since we had chicken for lunch already, I chose pork instead. Next time, I'll try using beef.  This is a super quick meal, ready in less than half an hour. And the best part, it's tasty!

Japanese Curry Bento

Japanese Curry with Pork & Vegetables

(I added a big onion, a potato, carrot & capsicum)

Japanese Curry Sauce Mix

Easy... Just add water.... & all the ingredients you like...

A recipe is provided at the back of the box. Just get the ingredients that you want ready and your Japanese Curry is just 20 minutes away...

Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce

Just prepared Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce for lunch :) Jerome said this is the best Bento set I've made so far... But then again, he said the same thing when I made the Teriyaki Chicken Bento Set & Tonkatsu & Japanese Curry Bento...

Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce Bento

Close-up of Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce

Recipe for Chicken Katsu

(Makes 4 pieces)

Ingredients:

2 skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp soya sauce

some pepper

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 egg, beaten

1 cup bread crumbs

oil for deep frying

Method:

1) Slice the chicken breasts into halves (to make it thinner for easier cooking) so that you can 4 pieces in the end.

2) Marinade the chicken in soya sauce & pepper.

3) Coat the chicken with flour, then the beaten egg & finally the bread crumbs.

4) Heat oil for deep frying & deep fry the chicken till it's nice & golden brown.

5) Dish up and drain off excess oil on kitchen paper. Cut in pieces & serve hot with some Tonkatsu Sauce & rice.

Tonkatsu Sauce

2 tbsp Worschester Sauce

3 tbsp tomatoe sauce

Just mix the 2 sauces together. Then pour over Chicken Katsu.

Fried Rice 2

Fried rice, just add whatever you like...
This time I added french beans, char siew, luncheon meat, chinese sausage & chinese dried mushroom.
Jerome liked the taste of the mushroom in the fried rice & he said it's the best fried rice I've cooked so far :)

I took this close-up photo using my Sony digital camera. Will take future photos using a proper digital camera instead of using my I-phone.

2 Reasons to use digital camera:
1) Obviously, the pictures are clearer & shows the details.
2) Or else when? The camera has been sitting in the drawer since June when we last had a holiday in Perth...

A Plate of Simple Fried Rice

Hainanese Chicken Rice (Prima Taste)

Hainanese Chinese Rice is one of the most popular hawker food in Singapore. You can almost find a stall selling Chicken Rice in every Coffee Shop. The fragrant rice cooked in chicken stock & spices really make it such a easy favourite for so many people. Have tried looking for a recipe to prepare it at home but when you're cooking for 2, you wonder if it's worth all the trouble (just an excuse for being lazy :P). Anyway, there's a lot of ready mixes around at the supermarket, so I decided to try one from Prima Taste. I've tried using Prima Taste's Chicken Curry Mix & Laksa Mix and they're great.

Prima Taste Hainanese Chicken Rice Paste

Just wash the rice, mix in the paste & add enough water to cook the rice. Very easy.

When the rice was cooking in the rice-cooker, we can already smell the fragrance in the entire house. I'm sure the neighbours could smell it too :)

I've never like the 'white' chicken for Hainanese Chicken Rice with the white fatty skin. My hubby also didn't like them. So I prepared our favourite baked chicken for our Hainanese Chicken Rice instead.

Anyway, the rice itself was so good that I'm sure we can eat it simply on its own. My hubby & I decided that we've never eaten chicken rice so fragrant before. I've cooked it twice so far - last week & yesterday. And guess what! Hubby has requested for chicken rice again this Saturday! I wonder when we'll ever get sick of it...

Hainanese Chicken Rice with Panfried Teriyaki Chicken (last week)

Hainanese Chicken Rice with Baked Chicken Leg in Char Siew Sauce (yesterday)

Prima Taste Chicken Rice, so good you can eat it on its own...

So good it makes everything that accompanies it taste as great...