Saturday, January 27, 2007

Lamb Chop And Mashed Potato

pics below are taken with my SEK610i

it's 2.28 a.m , and i haf church service in 4 hours time.heck, im suppose to be asleep. but my eyes wont shut. sigh. must b coz i drank too much. TEA. :P

anyway,like i promised, this post will be on lamb chop and mashed potato.

Lamb Chop and mashed potato = recipes for disaster if u're on a diet.

But hey, once in a while right? :P

I know that many ppl are very interested in eating steaks. However the word "steak" is often classify as "expensif food". so , the best way to eat steak cheap is to cook it yourself.


here are the ingredients :

1 . potatoes
2. extra virgin olive oil. ( can opt for butter if u wan to gain more weight)
3. saxa salt
4. lamb
5. saxa chilli and peppercorns
6. from left : HP sauce, Hunt's bbq sauce (d best in the world. hehe), lea and perrins sauce and dried parsley. even better if u haf fresh ones.
7 . (not in the pic)- UHT whipped cream
8. one tablespoon of flour -(not in d pic)
we'll start with the mashed potato 1st. 1st u boil it till its soft n cook. then follow the instructions below :


Next , we'll do the lamb choppy! seasoned your lamb. with ingredients no.3,5 and 6. "molest" the ingredients on the lamb (haha!) . Remember , NEVER marinate your lamb. leave it most up to 10 mins onli. Marinating is the last thing u shud do when u're cookin lamb chop yet, most ppl do this. trust chef mel yo!

Then saute your vege ( it can be any of ur choice , hence i din put d cauliflower[no , im not wrong.thats the green version of cauliflower, not brocoli.] as the ingredients), together with the lamb. cauliflower takes long time to cook if u dun boil them before hand , so put it in 1st if u opt to haf ur lamb medium rare. (i prefer it medium rare,no wel done pls.) Then the leftover "lamb juice" on the pan , put a lil water into it, then 2 table spoon of hp sauce, 2 tablespoon of hunts bbq sauce, and a lil bit of flour. stir it , then , put it on yr mashed potato :P

Here's how mine look like :) my pic is not so appetizing , but im drooling nw :P and u dun get meat at tat size in the shop :P

Crowne Plaza, Riverside Kuching


pics below are taken with my SEk610i.
Im writing bout Crowne plaza, riverside Kuching! :)

They have 3 cafes all together , but i am a frequent visitor of their coffeehouse, Cafe' Majestic.
below are the interior pics.




Honestly , even tho i've been thr a lot of times with my mum, but i havent try more than 4 of their menu. after the waiter take your order , they'll serve you with sky juice and bagels. last time they use to serve me 2 bagels, now onli one.haha. cut cost. But i cant blame them,the restaurant is often empty and ppl onli pop by to go toilet. haha. i've herd stories saying their toilet is haunted tho~! :P


I normally go there when i crave for salmon. Yes, they make GREAT salmon salad. it's the best in Kuching and , it is the only place u eat fresh salmon. it's damn good. The salmon is realy a lot and for the price u pay , i can tell u , its fucking worth it. I cant rem the price , but it's less than rm30. it is served with a type of in-house-cook sauce , and the sauce is a lil sour-ish . and it blends realli well with the smoked salmon and the imported lettuce and fresh onions..it also came with a lil capers. and even tho its salad, but i guarantee u , after this plate , YOU'RE FULL! :) and , Chef Mel is giving it a perfect score. :) guys , this is a must try!


In a seperate visit , i haf cravings for laksa bt it was in the afternoon , so i haf no whr to go, so i went to riverside. but the laksa is DAMN TERIBLE lo! it's the worse laksa i've eaten in my whole life. the soup is thin , and it's tasteless. oh , and the soup damn black too. they must haf put too much of the laksa paste. Honestly the soup taste as tho they juz mix the paste with water. damn disapointed. The sambal taste so terible .all in all , the laksa is a disaster. chef mel : 0/10 . SERIOUS. coz it sucks.

i've tried their nasi lemak many times, and its Ok to me. nt the best tho'. i haf no pics to share hehe, coz my mum usually "tapau" for me. :) and their club sandwich is nice too. i herd the sirloin steak is nice too , but my mum said it kinda sucks. haha. :P the ice kacang is huge tho. no pics :(


oh , and if u go thr, and dunno what drink to order , order their ice lemon tea. they haf a perfect taste of ice lemon tea. ice lemon tea is one of fav drink so im very particular about hw it is suppose to taste like. and they haf a really good one :) and it came with a syrup water so u can pour it urself. FUN! :P chef mel rating : 10/10

thr for, i REALLY recommend the salmon. damn damn good. kill me if its not up to ur taste!


* next up , home made sushi :)

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Best Coffee

KL 's a shopping paradise. Even the smallest shopping complex is bigger than Kuching's damn Tun Jugah. I went on a 10 days shopping spree not long ago, and i shopped more than 10 hours a day. After the 5th day , those megamalls , hypermarkets looks like a 400 m track to me. Im so tired. Yes ,for the first time, i was tired of shopping. ( plus , im fucking broke) I'm from Kuching and im not used to spend 10 hours in a shopping mall. I can spend one hour in 3 shopping malls.

And after a few days , of massive abuse to my leg n body carrying lots of plastic bags, my antibodies decided to die on me. Everybody would , if their in my case ok! I got so sick in Midvalley , and i almost fainted. at that time i was alone. I wanted to buy medicine but everywhr seems so far to me. So i decided to find a place to sit. I went to sushi king. WRONG CHOICE. omg.the fishy smell +headache = puke. after the 3rd plate of baby octopus, i was extremely queit. at that time my sis was thr with me. and she kept talking and im not answering. and she was like.. " r u ok?" and asked me to throw out at the sink behind me. i din OFCUZ~! Anyway , i went out of the shop quickly and walk to watson's to get paracetamol. Thank God , im very familiar with Midvalley (i've been thr many times, stayed thr too. so it was easy for me) . I quickly sat down at the bench and the ppl just wont stop moving and walking. I got even more headche!


so , i decided to go to DOME cafe and sat at the sofa. (juz what i wanted) i went thr alone coz my sis wanted to get sum books in MPH. i was greeted nicely and i dont need to order myself the drinks at the counter. :P There's not much choice of coffee drinks to choose from , so i chose the Honey Comb Ice Blended.


It came in glass instead of plastic cups.LOOOOK AT THE CREAM! so much! im drooling looking at the pics now man! the cream is topped with bits of honey comb.it was a huge cup too .
the price, no doubt is huge too. RM 17.50 . however i would say this is the best ice blended coffee i've tasted before. CHEF Mel rating : 9/10

After sitting for an hour, i feel so much better and continued to shop again.(HEHE) I'm definitely going back to Dome again!

Im posting so much bout kl, so pplz. my next post is Crowne Plaza , Riverside Kuching. :)

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Secret Recipe





Secret Recipe is a no stranger "brand name". It is so popular in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. It was originally by a man from Singapore if im not mistaken. They haf 175 branches in the west, bt non in the east. ( HEH!) They also earn numerous awards worldwide , and among it is Golden Bull award 2006 and Enterprise 50 award 2006. They're so good that you can even order their cake online.

If you ask me what is the only food i want to bring if im stuck on a desert , i would say CAKES. i tink cake is the greatest desert ever created by The Man above. Because my mum can bake very well (call me if you wanna order :>) , i set a very high bar of taste for any cakes i tasted outside. I can even judge the cake on whether it is using the "true" ingredients. No Kid
ding.

So Far, Secret recipe is the only shop where i c
an really satisfy my lust for cakes. it's so satisfying that i can close my eyes n dream to la-la land when i put a tiny bit in my mouth. sounds so exagerating but , yeah, i really love it. Ive been there almost uncountable times and my dad sumtimes even buy the whole cake from the shop home.. Yes, air flown cake. :) They do haf other western cuisines and pastries . I tried them and i Dont quite like it :P And , the best drink thr is their Ice Blended Chocolate. It' s really good. I dun haf a pic to share tho.

I never take any photos everytime i visit thr , but during my last visit at one of their branch in Ikano Power Centre, I took Pic with my Hp's cam :) I had 3 types that day , which is



New York Cheese cake


It's the best new york cheese cake i've tasted, and tis is one my favourite. I'll haf to say it's perfect. Thr fore , Chef Mel rating : 10 / 10




Then it's the Chocolate banana.Just look at the amount of banana :P it's not like other cake shops whr they said its "banana cake" and u need to play *hide and seek* to search for the banana. It tasted Ok. Just nice. :) Chef Mel rating : 8/ 10


and this one is the walnut brownie. It came with a toppings of melted chocolate. So , it kinda make the brownie more moist , and yea. it's good. Chef Mel rating: 9/10


I haf tasted a lot of other types as well but i dont haf the pic. So guys, if u need a place to indulge in a good cake, pay a lil more , and go to Secret Recipe. No regrets for sure.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Ice creams! We all loved it!

Yay! My ice cream post !

Haha. Im a fan of ice cream. And mind you, only good ones satisfy me.

So when i was in kl , i tried almost every famous ice cream chain altho' some of it could cost a bomb. the only popular ones that i didnt try was baskin robbins. coz i tried it during my previous trips. ofcourse, i didnt haf the time to try the underdogs chains as well. Jus some popular ones.


Haagen Dazs!if u never heard of it, go and long piak. they are bloody popular despite the expensif price and I've been dying to try it . Kuching have it too but i think it must be in the fridge for half a decade. kuching -aiks wudn't pay more than rm 2 for an ice cream. haha.but in KL u see ppl queeing for it. bloody rich.damn. however , i was quite dissapointed coz it didnt taste as good as i thought. I tried one of their famous flavour (and also my favourite flavour for ice cream.) it's rum and raisin. the smell of rum is pretty strong , but i find the ice cream not creamy enough. It's one scoop for rm 9.35 , one small scoop to be precise. I got chased by this lady whu keep asking me to donate for oh-i-dunno-whu after i bought the ice cream. she must've thought... " wahh, yu chien ren. ke yi chek ice cream!"...haha. she keep blabbing bout i duno what , and i gave up and gaf her rm1. (she actualli asked for rm30. bt i gaf her that "siau ar u" look. haha.) [ chef mel rating : 6/10]


The next stop is, Dairy Queen. It 's so popular in the overseas. Even Donald Trump has a game of it! I had my Dairy Queen Ice cream in Allamanda Putrajaya. Apparently i havent seen it in any whr else. I choose the snickers flavor . The make it something like... ermm.. mcflurry. u choose the flavor then they'll "blend" it with i-dunno-wt-machine . And they'll serve you upside down, and if it drip, u dun haf to pay. haha. hw i wish it dripppppped! haha. it's quite cheap surprisingly, Just RM 7.80 for one huge cup.! but i tink the snickers is a bit toooo big ! felt so tired munching it! haha!i also found dairy king in seremban bt din try it .( the girl was on cloud 9 when i asked her to pose for me. haha, i was actualli hoping it will drip. lol.. i asked her to pose like 3 times. lol ) [ chef mel rating : 6/10]



Then it's lecka lecka. I tink it's a chain under famous amos as well. not so sure :) . they haf sooooo many flavours to choose from , and i realli didnt noe wt flavour i wanted. i tried almost 5 and my sis said "are u done with trying? juz pick one la"..... bt i was still unsure. shytt, i mean , u dun get to see varieties of ice cream in kch ok! so anyway i trusted my sister's choice, which is cookies. it came with toppings of famous amos crumbs . (it must be the left overs. haha)the portion is juz right , unlike the super tiny scoop from haagen dazs.and even tho i like colours, i didnt bother to taste any of the fruit flavours. hehe. i dun realli like fruit flavoured ice creams. :P anyway , i must say this one is one of the best. the price is pretty cheap too. but i cant rem tho. i think it's around rm6-7. [chef mel rating : 9/10]


For those in KL, u'll noe this one. He's very very popular for "throwing here n thr" the ice cream. haha. the speciality of the ice cream is the "stickyness" of the ice cream.it's like a dough n he'll "throw" it up and down with a so-called stick. it's not like those ice cream u always eat where u'll need tonnes of tissue to wipe the melting ice cream. so parents, this is a good ice cream for ur kid! haha. :P the ice cream taste damn good oso. this is also my dad's favourite and he NEVER missed it everytime he 's in kl , and can eat EVERYDAY. haha. the man is reali nice too , and he actually posed for me. haha. and , he'll trick you by quickly dropping the cone n later turn it again. i like this one! [chef mel rating : 9.5/10 ]


and thr's this yogi yogi machine. its a franchise thing. n seen almost everywhr in KL. noting special about it , but yea , its nice and cheap. rm 1.50 for mix, rm1 for original. i tasted both. even tho it's normal ice cream, i still think it's nicer than most of those machines u see in kch. send one yogi yogi here pls! :) [chef mel rating : 6/10]

ohhh .. so ice cream-licious! :P and fatty-licious!:(

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Exza Food Depot

Two days ago , I went to town for a yumcha session with my best mates. After driving without direction for almost half an hour, we decided to go to Exza Food Depot. I had always wanted to go thr!

and this is d drink i ordered. it's pina colada , bt i chose the choice of mocktail instead of cocktail.
it taste Ok, but i feel giddy after a while. the coconut smell is a bit too strong n it's not well stirred leaving the few last sips to be super - extreme sweet. it's RM 9 , btw.


and this one , "cool me down", two of my friends ordered it. they said it taste nice. also at Rm9. If im going thr again , im gonna order this one. haha. i like the colour! haha.


i couldn't be bothered to take the pics of the guy's drinks. coz they came in normal glass :P anyway,we ordered Fries, as our finger food . the fries came in big portion , and sprinkled with generous amount of black pepper. I must say it's cheaper than other cafe's , coz its only RM 5!

After looking at our neighbour's food , we were tempted to order smtg as well. so we decided to order the Mozarella Mussels. I wont say it's the best mussels i've tasted, but it tasted Ok. not too bad, not too nice either. wt turns me off was the "fishy" smell is thr. however , i still tink they can improve by putting more herbs or italian seasoning. Some parsley probably wud help.Oh yeah , it's RM15. reasonable :)




Altogether , Chef Mel gif them 6 out of 10. why ?

they shall improve in their service. Thr's five of us , and all they gaf was one lil tiny plate of chili sauce. And like i told u , the fries came in big portion. so , obviously its not even near to the word enough. other than tat, the food needs a lot of improvement. The ambience was ok tho`.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Sandwich Container

Heh , so i said i wanted to blog bout ice cream. But i haf this cool stuff to blog 1st. The tupperware sandwich container. it looks like this.

And these are the ingredients. Pls note that im using japanese kyuri. If u cant find them , u can still use our normal cucumber , but pls dun use zuchini ! you're nt compulsory to use tuna , but make sure the fillings is sumthing "sticky" otherwise ur sandwich will b a disaster. heh! and i used green bread so tat it'll look more appetizing.


the process itself is easy. i'll explain based on the numbers



1 ) spread the table margarine on all the bread. remember to "de-skin" the bread. :P

2) then , juz arrange the bread like the pic above. make sure the bread is overlapping one another.

3) after that, put the tuna . nt too much tho. just exactly like the pic above.

4) then juz arange layer by layer till its full. most importantly, use ur creativity!

later, put in the fridge for 2 hours.. wait patiently. HEH!

AND, tis is how it shud look like :)



and after that u jus slice it :) n it'll look like the pic on the left :P

beautiful creation!

eh , im not paid by tupperware to do tis ad! uekkz ! :P

Monday, January 15, 2007

The launching!

It's going to be the best blog, it will be. No doubt.

Stay tuned for my 1st post!