Aus punye Lemak

Since we are still on our semester break now, Rachel n I decided to cook some M'sian food. Not pan mee, not char kuey teow, but NASI LEMAK. Hmm.... But first of all, need to seek some tips n advise from professional 1st lah. My mum. lol. She was shocked when she 1st heard tat we wanted to cook nasi lemak.

"Wah, very ma fan one wo. Need to cook the sambal, the rice, a lot of skills needed," she said.

At 1st i was hesitating too. But since we are still free now, y not try it. U nvr try, u nvr know. haha. So, we decided to challege ourselves. We went to Victoria Market the day b4 to look for our ingredients. Din get to buy anything fr there coz mahal. Then found pandan leaf for our nasi lemak in a nearby asian grocery which cost us $1.50 for 2-3 pcs. So expensive! Tak pe.

Head to another asian grocery in city. Found most of our ingredients we needed. Bought the other essentials from supermarket.

So here comes the day. We girls were the chef while the guys do nothing except playing games. hmmphh..! haha. Nvrm.. later u guys will have to do the washing... haha... We started cooking by 2pm. Blend our chilli paste, shallots and garlic for our sambal ikan bilis.

Next, we put the blended ingredients onto the pan n stir, stir n stir with anchovies n onions for almost an hour. Fuhhhh.... Kesian Rachel have to stir it. We tried the sambal again n again. Hope to get the taste like wat we have in M'sia. The sambal was very bitter in the beginning, n we added heaps of water, salt n sugar to cover the bitterness. We weren't tat sure whether was tat a right method. In the end, we achieved the taste we was hoping for.

Next dish, our Rendang Chicken. Of coz we din make d rendang. Just bought the ready made paste. Dump the chicken into the paste n stirred for almost half n hour or so. This time is my turn to stir. Really tiring! Since we can't dump all the chicken to the rendang, we fried the remaining chickens.

Cut cucumbers, boiled eggs and fried the anchovies n peanuts as side dish for nasi lemak. Luckily Rachel cooked the rice the nite b4 or else, more work to be done. We even cooked red bean desert for... our desert. lol.

Only 2 of us but have to cooked so many dishes. Eventually we got everything done by 6pm. We stood in the kitchen for more than 4 hours! Imagine.....

Introducing.... Aus Nasi Lemak!

The chefs n the playa's.....

Macam sedap but dunno how it taste like yet....

Hmmm..... up close....

The reactions....

What do u think?

Luxurious Dinner

It has been a while we never eat any seafood even fishes in Melb. I've got this phobia of eating fish coz everytime i bought one fr chinese grocery shop, sure not fresh n fishy. yuck! So this time we plan to buy fresh fish from market.. no more fr that grocery shop.

So yesterday we went n survey for fishes.. FRESH ONES.. Went to Coles first to see whether is there any suitable ones as jeremy suggested we cook something like wat they hav in Manhatthan Fish Market. Fuiyohh... Samo with their famous lemon garlic butter sauce. No ngam punye fish BUT saw something on a very special price. LOBSTER! Only cost $4 for half of it. Not very big though but it was really CHEAP..

Without hesitating, terus buy. haha. I doubt it'll b fresh since they sell it for so cheap worr.. Next stop, to Prahran Market, a market near my place. Pretty clean n neat market compared to ours in M'sia.

Another one with my "si lai" look.. With shopping trolley samor.. :P

Walk walk to the seafood section, then saw mussels. We were thinking, since we bought lobster, y not some mussels? Initially we asked for 6 pcs coz we dunno how much mar, scared expensive. The lady weighed it, "That will be 80 cents". We were like.... "SO CHEAP?" haha. "Then make it 10 pcs we replied", which only cost us $1.25.

Every shop there were shouting to promote their seafoods. "$5! Cheap cheap!" So happen we hopped to this particular shop, their fishes were on "sale". haha. $5 for king dory fish. Hmmm... dunno whether cheap anot but guarantee fresh lah. Without doubting again, we bought tat.

OK! Done with our marketing n grocery shopping.. We did not cook those seafoods right tat nite but the next day.

The process, ermm.... u wouldn't want to know. Coz we oso not too sure wat's the right method to cook all those. haha. So wat we did for the lobster was, steam it and put it in microwave with some cheese n butter since we dun hav oven. Mussels, boiled it and the fish, pan fried it. The most essential element will be the garlic lemon butter sauce.

According to Jeremy's mum, ingredients we need is obviously.. garlic, lemon & butter. oops, that's jus exactly the name of the sauce wasn't it? oh, hav to add in milk oso.. So we dumped everything in, stirred it.. n DONE!

Here's d outcome...

The main course, Mr. Lobster, Ms. Fish and Uncle Mussel. So happy that fish is fresh. The lobster still ok.. $4, wat u expect! haha..

The sauce! Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce.. How's the taste u ask? Ermm.. not bad lah. lol. jus a bit too sour coz squeezed too much of lemon.

n also some salad n mushie soup + bread.

This dinner is rather cheap, should b around $ 8 per person for seafood meal. Worth it!

Jalan-jalan makan-makan

After the last outing to the HK fast food restaurant, n saw the cheese baked rice that Meng Jiunn ordered, we got inspired all of sudden.

"Hey, y not make tat ourself at home?"

The next day, we prepare all the ingredients we need for cheese baked rice. This includes, minced meat, spagetthi sauce, cabonara sauce ( we want to have 2 sauces), mushrooms and cheese. And also the most important one, RICE.

Fry fry fry, place it in d microwave with the cheese and DING! Easy as 1,2,3! lol.

One time not syok enough (according to mr tai), so we made another cheese baked rice within 2 days. Gosh.... How to diet like tat... cheese cheese cheese...

But this time taste better... mayb added more cheese and plus a pc of chicken on top. and more calorie added lor!!


Last 2 weeks, in order to celebrate our freedom after submitted all of our projects, we cooked this:

Our 1st western food in Aus...


This is for my ma ma to see wat i've cook.. She jus wanna make sure i ate healthily. Sorry if all these food posts bored u guys. haha..

As i said b4 in my older post, we seldom eat out. Must appreciate wat we ate outside by taking pics of it. lol. n this is for my cousin to see as well. Since he wants to know wat kind of food we hav in Melb. Nothing special oso la. haha.

Top pic: Burgers at Grill'd. Yummy burgers but super expensive.

Bottom pic: Char Siew rice and Beef noodle. Nice foods but bad service. Really really BAD!

I'm not goin to mention the name tat restaurant though (its somewhere near city). According to my fren, these "waitress" (all of them are girls) who i believe are hongkies, will treat every customers differently depending on whether u hav black or blonde hair. (i'm not saying all hongkies are like tat, some are really nice). My fren evidenced this herself. The waitress knew we chinese ppl sure kiamsiap one, dun giv tips like how the guai lous did, so they dun give a damn n giv stupid ugly faces when they are serving us. Samo we are students, lagi lah.. They even condemed those customers who don't give them tips with bad languages even when other customers are around. Saying something like

"that idiot give so lil' tips, waste my time serve them so good" ...

Some even scolded with 4 letter words right after the customers left the restaurant. WAT THE??? If its not bcoz of the food, NO WAY i'm goin back there again. Seeing all those ugly faces. Melampau! Hmmph!

Fun outing!

The next day after our submission, we planned our 1st outing. Actually the outing was to farewell one of my friend as she's goin back to M'sia for her graduation ceremony. But she will still be coming back la. haha. B4 meeting the rest of my friends for lunch, Rachel, Meng Jiunn, Yumeko, Jeremy n I went to the IMMI main office in Parliament to collect or working visa sticker. Waited for abt 45 mins wherelse the process only last abt 5 mins or so. hmm...

So, next destination... to Melbourne Central to meet up with Yunnie! She told us that there's a shop near Melb Central sells nice n yummy nasi lemak. So, she brought us there.. Manatau.. the shop closes down d. Yunnie said the shop was operated by a malay couple and the serve nice nasi lemak. Gosh.. there goes my nasi lemak tat i've been longing for. Where r u ... my nasi lemak?????

No nasi lemak, move on to plan B. A Hong Kong fast food nearby Melb Central too. They serve foods something like Kim Gary in M'sia. I oredered the set meal "ma po tofu" where they come with a complimentary milk tea. (I miss Kim Gary's yin yong)

While waiting for our foods to be served, this is wat we did..... We analyzed how young girls take pic nowadays and this is their latest trend.. Thanx to Yumeko who edited the pics..

So, here's how our food looks like. Cannot compare with Kim Gary la. Sure kalah teruk..

Stomach full full d, must jalan a bit.. So, to Victoria Market we go! Make full use of my Metcard today.. Took loads of tram d. Reached. BUT, tarak buka??? Din realise they closes on Mon n Wed. Aiksss... Suan ler. Walk around here n there... Nothing to see, no money to buy. Balik lor.. Saw this when we were walking back to the tram station.

an UNDERGROUND TOILET...Sounds creepy doesn't it?


But its not creepy as we tot.. In fact, its pretty clean and bright down there. No one's down there at the moment. Snap a pic 1st. kekeke... Promote the cleanliness...


US. Promoting again. lol.


N the men were promoting their gents too..

That's a wrap! Cheerio!

A short break.

My aunt called me yesterday asking us to have a dinner today. At 1st i was hesitating as there are heaps of works waiting for me. Think again, i need a break too. And plus, her birthday is on this coming Monday. So i promised her to go out n hav dinner together and planned 2 belanja her makan as well.

We discussed earlier on that we wanted to try out the foods in Lygon St. since the place is famous for Italian Foods. We went out at about 6pm and the sky was already so dark, feels like 8/9 pm like tat. On our way there, the traffic was'nt so smooth around Richmond, we guessed there are some events going on. 1st time seeing traffic jam in Melb. haha. My aunt told me there were having some football or cricket match as there's a stadium near the train station.

After that particular area, only then the traffic went smooth again. Reached Lygon St. There were heaps of Italian restaurants on the whole stretch of the street. We were doubting on which restaurant to go to. We reached this particular Italian restaurant whr there's this someone doin promotion & saying tat they'll give us complimentary beverages if we dine in there. Since the weather is superbly cold out there and we dare not walk too far, we jus hopped in that restaurant.

This is wat we ate:

Our Starters :Bruchettas... tastes ok ok only..

Soup of the day... Dunno wat vege soup lah. (doesnt look delicious rite? i think i can cook better).Plus not cheap oso leh, cost us abt $9.50 for this thing. Use cheap vegies sommore.. aiks.

Carbonara with bacon. Hmm.. a bit too oily..

Bolognese Lasagne... This one still ok lah. Cheezie.... yum...

And our desert.. Tiramisu cake for the birthday gal. The taste not like wat we expected it to be. Lembik-lembik one.. Secret Recipe's one so much nicer.. and this thing cost is $11.90!!!!!!!! I rather go eat the one in Crown. hmm..

Conclusion is, we kena con by the free drinks d. haha. N wat's the free drink? It's Sprite, the soft drink. We chose the wrong restaurant d.. sigh. Nvrm, no more next time.

And here's the birthday gal n me! :)

Mr. Tai & birthday gal

No mood to do work again. I'm procrastinating le.... cannot cannot...Back to work lah!

Masak-Masak..

Mari masak-masak... lol.. B4 i came here, i've never even cooked a meal at home.(except for maggi mee and sometimes fried rice) And now, i have to cook every single day. Aiyo. *Sienz . Every morning have to think of what to cook for dinner. And i have to recall back what my mum usually cook at home so that i hav some ideas on wat to cook.

But i can say, both Jeremy and myself got improvements in our cooking skills la. From zero in cooking till now, can say abit expert d la. lol. Plus we watch cooking tv shows too. and Jeremy's loves Jamie Oliver one of the famous young chef... Hmm.. dun prey prey oh.

This page is oso dedicated to my mum since she wants to know what i cook everyday.

Boiled "ham choy tong" the other day. Not bad though.

Herbal soup oso know wo. haha.. "yok choy tong"

Wan Ton soup. We mixed & chopped the ingredients and wrapped the wan ton ourself . :P

Lemon Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken

Oh, we bought frozen "Roti Canai" too. Taste good oso. With the "dal" together.

Green beans - my all time fav. back home. Fry with carrots and ham.

The most simple dish of all - Tom Yum Fried Rice

One of the simple dish as well. Spagetthi with mushrooms.

To Fu with "lee kum kee" sauce.

I was looking for "sa kot" (chinese turnips) for so long in Melb. I missed the dish "sa kot" with "man tao" in Esquire Kitchen back home . So i wanted to try out that dish myself. Eventually Yumeko saw it in Boxhill and bought for me. This is how it looks like. But dont compare it to Esquire Kitchen's one la. Of coz that one tastes better.

BBQ Chicken wing with beansprout.

2 dishes, one soup. - perfect meal.

This is what i eat when i dont feel like cooking. Pita bread + Mushrooms + tomatoes + lettuce +cheese and place it in microwave. TING! can eat d...

This is what we had yesterday. Carbonara with mushroom soup + wholemeal bread.


N finally, this was wat we had just now. Tom Yum fish + Gyoza. We cooked the gyoza in 3 different style;

1. stir fry

2. soup

3. steam

and the conclusion is, stir fry was the best.

AND our fish was a disaster. HANYIR~~~ YUCK!

I'm not going to buy fish again. Trauma, Trauma.... burrrrppp...

Chocsss...

I bought chocs again.. hmm.. i know i shouldn't but its so tempting... & I can't resist as it is so cheap.. It only cost me $1.25 for a box of it. Because it is easter's chocs, tat's y the sell it for so cheap. *Arghhh...

Yum yum.. (I'll diet after i finish this box. )

N da chocs tastes sooo good.. 3 different flavours.. caramels , choc mousse and hazelnut.. Nice packaging too.


Nice rite? n cheap too.. haha. Available at all priceline pharmacies.... & while stock last.... :P (doin free promotion for them oso)

BRRUUURRRPPP......

Last week, my landlady, Ally came to our apartment. Not to collect rent but she wanted to collect letters. But at the same time, she passed us heaps of sandwiches, pies, wraps, doughnuts.. Really heaps of it!

When we met her for the 1st time, Ally told us she had loads of "EXPIRED BISCUITS" and asked whether we want it or not. We were like..... uhmmph... *speechless. Don't know how to answer her. Why would she want to give us those "expired foods"? Weird.... So at time, i just told her we have loads of biscuits as well.

I was so worried if all the foods she gave us has expired but luckily it's not. I was so curious where she got all these from thus i asked her. She told me she's selling all these foods. (0.0) .. I guess she can't finish selling all of it, so just passed it to us rather than throwing it.

BUT the thing is, all the sandwiches, doughnuts and wraps have to be cleared within 3 days.. Only the pies can be kept.

OMG.. How can we finish all of it in 3 days?

Yumeko only incharge of the salad wrap and the cheese roll. How lucky.. Wherelse Jeremy and i have to clear off all the tuna sandwiches and chicken wraps..... Fuhh....

Just look at it..

Just look at our peti sejuk... Already so full before the foods went in.. Look at it now.. going to burst soon. lol..

But luckily we manage to clear all the foods within 3 days. HOW?

Breakfast : Doughnut

Lunch: Tuna Sandwich

Dinner : Chicken Wrap

That was how we did it. For 3 days, tat's our meal. BRRUUURPPP..... *full

But anyhow, we still need to thank Ally for all the foods. We saved so much for our food expenses :)