Exam season - Nothing fancy

Oh by the by. I've recently decided I'm gonna try and pick up Food Photography. It'd be such a waste if I didn't learn, especially when I go back this Summer. Wanna do all the wonderful food I'm about to eat justice. So I'm gonna be spending more time learning how to take better photos and also how to edit them this summer. Gonna take it slow so bear with me.

Chasyu Ramen. I quite liked it to be honest which was surprising cause I never really liked the place at all before for some reason. But the soup was really thick, flavourful and not at all salty with MSG. Very springy noodles too yum yum. Plus, the meat with the fats were simply DELISH. I just wished they had given me more of the meat ;O @ Ajisen Ramen, Bourke Street.

My friend ordered this hot plate chicken and it was SOOO surprisingly good! Even had cheese in it too mmmmm

Everytime I went there with mum, they'd run out of this. But they finally had it but nothing special to be honest.

A friend made this for me once and I liked it so much I decided to make it for my sister too. Though it wasn't as good cause I might have burnt the milk. It's just black sesame glutinous ball with warm soya bean milk. Never had this combo before but makes for a great snack!

So a friend recently requested that I put up recipes for my dishes on here as well. Which was kinda embarrassing cause I'm far from being a "good cook". Here it is anyway, to all you students who wanna learn to cook a simple dish or two.

Steam Egg:

Season meat with salt, pepper, sesame oil, light soy sauce, chinese cooking wine and a bit of oyster sauce (optional). Then mash up a whole duck egg (if cooked) and mix it with meat. Line it at bottom of plate.

Later, just beat 4 eggs and add APPROX 3/4 cups of water. Add a bit of salt too. Then just pour on top.

Turn fire to high heat til boiling before covering with lid and lowering to medium heat. Steam for 8min. Check to see if egg is cooked by poking a hole and VOILA.

EASY AS. If you can cook pasta with instant sauce or curry with instant paste then you sure as hell can do this too. LMK what you think.

Also cooked a drumstick with my homemade teriyake sauce =]. Basically made it with light soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar and a bit of honey. Don't know the measurements cuz lotsa trial and error before being satisfied with it

Steam Chicken:

Rub chicken with salt, and put some cut up garlic (4 cloves) and ginger (1 thumbsize) on and around the chicken. Then, steam for about 15-20min. Make sure have enough water to create more steam to cook faster. I normally fill water up til about 1cm from bottom of plate.

Nothing special. But quick and easy meal. Chop up ingredients and chuck it to be steamed.

Anyway, my friend requested for "you chai", aka "Oil Vegetable" to eat with the steamed chicken for dinner. So I decided to "Dai Chao", aka "Big Fry" for the first time. That is, stir fry with extremely high heat. So quick and exciting! Careful not to burn your food too much, yo.

What kept me going the past few weeks. Instant coffee from Malaysia. Oh so much goodness to choose from each night.

Don't judge me. But I had the weirdest craving/curiosity for baby food the other day. I mean, I'm sure they taste good since I vaguely recall the ones back home (Nestle or Nestum brand) being really nice!

WRONG. It was horrible. Maybe it's not as bad, but it tasted like oat meal, and I hate oat meal (Not Aussie enough, mate!). So tasteless and disgusting! So I did what every Malaysian would do, add lots and lots of Condensed Milk (Susu Cap Junjung)!! And even made the effort to chop up some bananas. After all that? Still tasted like crap, pffffffft.

No wonders babies throw up all the time

Anyway on my days when I wake up groggy and am too lazy to cook anything for lunch, I'd head over to the cafe downstair to get meself some lunch. I'd always hesitate cause it's really ordinary but I'd always end up paying $15-17 just for lunch. CRAP. And I always order the same thing, Roast Lamb with Roast Potato and Pumpkin. Don't mean to sound like a prick, but I can do it better. The price I pay for convenience some times.

Although, it's kinda funny cause every one at the cafe would be in their business suits and all and suddenly you have this short small Asian kid walking in with his oversized Giordano T-Shirt and sweatpants trynna order some food over while walking amidst a sea of towering people =]

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken. Ingredients: Honey and Mustard.

OK. Here's the real reason why I haven't gone insane in Australia. It's cause I've got my stock of Sarawak White Pepper. I mean, for Western food I'd always use ground pepper but when it comes to ASIAN FOOD.... My my my... What would I EVER do without my Sarawak White Pepper, seriously.

Food mostly prepared by Ellie at Jin's housewarming. Spot the Cheeseballs?

A very very satisfying home cooked meal (notice the mountain of rice) with Indian Eggplant, Korean minced meat, Mushroom Omelette and Leftover Lamb Stew during one of the nights of studying for exams.

Thaaaaaat's all folks! Will be having a Potluck with all the Eng guys this Sunday night, so should be interesting! Gonna dedicate a whole post to all the food cooked by me and my friends that night so stay tuned, kids!

I keep my promises

This time in chronological order. Nothing fancy. Hope you enjoy anyway =)

CURLY FRIES!!!! I go nuts with these every time they sell it at McDonald's, Malaysia during Chinese New Year. Was ecstatic when I found these @ Aldi Superstore.

One of the simplest complete meal I've ever made. I've been wanting to go back to get these Kentucky Schnitzel @ Vic Mark for a long time cause I liked it so much the first time I had it. Glad I finally could. Anyway, pan fried schnitzel, baby spinach with balsamic vinegar and baked curly fries. I really only had to cook the schnitzel and dinner was prepared. NO SWEAT.

Made my first attempt for Crispy Skin Pork (Siew Yoke) and it tasted surprisingly good! And so simple that even a brainless monkey can do it. Highly recommend you guys to attempt to make your own Siew Yoke too. Recipe can be found at: http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2009/06/chinese-roast-pork-belly-with-crackling.html

Wanted to try it with a small portion first and bought this beautiful piece of Pork Belly @ Footscray Market.

My housemate bought some really delicious Curry Puff @ Footscray. Have to ask him which store it's from. Apparently it's a famous one so some of you should know.

Anyway, since I was young I've always liked deep fried medium-sized red fish. So I decided to try deep fry it myself when I came across these ideal red fishes that I liked so much @ The Footscray Wet Market. Unfortunately, I still don't know the name and still refer to it as the red fish =/. Gotta ask Mum

Also, I've always preferred medium sized fish cause I like the skin more than the meat and that way I don't have to eat a huge chunk of meat to get a small piece of skin =). That's why the Lou Xu Ban, aka "Mouse Grouper" is one of my favourite expensive fish to eat, just cause of the size. Unless it's a really good fish like the "7 Star Grouper" or Hoi Dai Gai, aka "Underwater Chicken", etc, then I wouldn't mind them big =P

Yee-ha! Got 2 of these bad boys for about $5 only... WIN! Cooking your own food from the market is seriously so much cheaper and nicer. Dressed them with dark soy sauce and deep fried shallots (which my parents brought a whole jar of from KK ;p)

Attempted Chinese Wine Chicken the other day too. Just dumped the usual stuff like chinese mushrooms, chinese fungus, red dates and ginger and that's about it. Easy as. Only wished I had pan fried the chicken first but no matter. The broth went so well with rice so I was really happy with it =)

This was all I ate the first two days I was sick. Lots and lots of porridge. Here we have plain porridge with Bovril, century egg, canned black bean fish and omelette with preserved vegetable called, "Chai Bu". Not really sure what it is but it's what we eat with omelettes sometimes. Can't see it cause it's inside the porridge.

This omelette and "Chai Bu" always brings me back to the time my Late Grandfather's brother visited us from China. It was the first time we'd meet him so we had a family dinner with relatives that I didn't even know lived at KK! And seeing him was really touching cause I never got to see any of my Grandfathers and this was the closest I got to doing so at the time. And Dad told me that this Granduncle is still as fit and healthy as he was 50 years ago. He does lots of vigorous exercise to get to places in China and only eats porridge or food with very little oil and taste. So when he visited, he was so nice to give us some of this "Chai Bu" too. Such a memorable day.

So anyway, that's the grandmother story of why "Chai Bu" Omelette means a lot to me every time I eat it. Also it tastes great. I'll cook it for you guys one of these days.

When I was sick, I was constantly hungry cause porridge only filled your tummy up for a while. So I made the effort to pack myself the healthiest lunch I've ever prepared. I mean, three course meal, bebeh! Appetizer: Avocado salad, Main: 4 slices of Tuna Sandwich, Dessert: Green Apple. My tummy felt so complete and satisfied after that. At the time, I was still having very bad sore throat so I didn't want anything cooked or hot, period.

The no-oil diet continues on Day 4 of sickness. Sis made wontons so I made Seaweed and egg soup with glass vermicilli to go with it =)

ZOMG. Had this for lunch today and I enjoyed it so much!! It's Japanese ox tongue with rice (Gyu-Tan Don). Honestly, it's nothing like what you'd imagine. Tastes exactly like beef, but much nicer and chewier. And it was cut very thinly and cooked with a tasty sauce. YUM YUM YUM. Big thanks to my sis for the recommendation. Please order it anytime you're around the area. Can have it @Menya, Melbourne Central (in between Harajuku Crepes and Boost Juice).

There was 5 of us studying at my place just now, so I decided to cook a MASSIVE pot of Lamb Stew for everyone. If only I made it more presentable. Anyway it still tasted pretty good. Cooked it with some Pasta sauce, Heinz Smoky BBQ Sauce and Lea&Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce =D. Made extra so I can pop the leftover in the fridge overnight so it can taste better the next day. Always works with any kind of stew woo hoo!

As a hobby, I like to either cook/visit food blogs/blog about food. Surprise surprise. Told you I wouldn't let too many pictures pile up this time.

OKKKKKKKKKKKKKK...

Okay this is horrible, I've let so many pictures piled up over the last month and a half, and even after intensive filtering, I've still got too much. Will try my best never to repeat this mistake again. It's just a shame to not upload these piks cause I know I'll never look back at those folders in my laptop anyway.

And what a gastranomically (not a real word) awesome eating experience I've had the last month and a half. For convenience, this post shall be divided into 2 subsections arranged chronologically:-

(i) Eating OUT

One of the best pizzas I've ever had. Mushroom + Fetta (I think, kinda forgot) + Prosciutto. @Pasta Restaurant, Crown.

Reason is cause of the base. I mean, look at that. I find that almost all the pizzas I've had never manage to bake the base properly. They get the crust right but the base always turns out too damn soggy and thin that the toppings even seeps through. You can see by the evidence on your plate. Mine was still dry and clean.

Best test? To hold the pizza up vertically, and am glad to see all the toppings barely moved. Little Italy at KK would fail this test miserably. Just hold it up and count to 3, and your toppings will be all over your plate already. Yuck.

One of the better Xiao Long Bao's I've had in Melbourne. I really miss the one in Din Tai Fung, Sydney but not as much as the ones in China =(. @Hu Tong, Chinatown.

Superb roast and grill. Best ribs I've had in Melbourne. The meat was so moist, tender and juicy. Slides right off the bone effortlessly. I'll say this again, Meat & Wine Co. and Hurricane Grill are ridiculously overrated. The lamb shank and greek salad was really good too. @The Grill Room, Domain Interchange.

I had such a great time eating this massive shank with my hands. I love char but not too much. Just the right proportion for me here. Also, I LOVE bone marrows. I sucked on the bone and the WHOLE marrow came out all in one piece and it was 3 inches long! WOW, that was a first. Every bone marrow lover's dream.

My KK friends and I LOVE Szechuan food. Though I was quite unhappy this Water Boiled Fish dish didn't come in claypot, but I was surprised that I really liked the taste so I didn't mind at all after that. @Szechuan Dining Room, Midcity Complex

My other favourite Szechuan dish. Fried pork intestines. Don't kick it til you've tried it, son. SO GOOD!

One of my ALL TIME favourite Chinese dish in Melbourne, fried pork intestines with prawn meat. It sounds like nothing, but this dish is SURE to turn every non intestine eater to an intestine lover, I kid you not. Every one I know who's had it can't stop saying how much they loved it, including myself. @Ling Nam, .Chinatown

One of my FAVOURITE places to eat in Melbourne, this Jap Buffet that's really generous in quantity without compromising its quality. A rare find in restaurants. Seriously fell in love with the place first time I went there some time last year. ALL YOU CAN EAT SASHIMI (!!!).... OOOOOOHHHH SO GOOOD. @Surf and Turf, Brighton. (Crappy name for a Jap restaurant, I know)

I LOVE ordering the Beef Salad there. Seriously good.

I don't know anywhere in Melbourne that serves bigger Tempura Prawns. They were considered massive plus we had plates and plates of all this yummy goodness. Damn we're blessed.

Sorry, this had to be shown. I love ordering Chicken Skin in restaurants, especially if they're deep fried. One thing I love about Indonesian Restaurants. Sick I know. But can you tell how much I don't care? @Garage Cafe, Parkville.

Okay, I didn't actually eat this but this HAD TO BE SHOWN. Only in Footscray, I swear. @The Market, Footscray.

This was only today and I really enjoyed everything on this plate. Though doesn't look special, but the roast tomato and tomato relish was AMAZING. The bacon was interestingly good cause it wasn't pan fried like normal. I think they might have steamed or poached it or something cause it was slightly wet. @St Ali, Clarendon.

Great cup of coffee. 4 skinny lattes. I look at this picture and I'm reminded about the awesome times I've had sharing Life with this awesome bunch of boys.

Eating IN:

Sis cooked this AMAZING pasta dish. One of the best I've ever had, no joke! She's outdone herself with oil based pasta lately. This was made with garlic infused olive oil + basil pesto. I loved it cause every bite was so exciting and fresh! Had either spinach/sun dried tomatoes/mushrooms/prosciutto in every mouthful. YUM!!

We cooked in a LOT when Dad was here. It was awesome cause Dad LOVES cooking and he would try and whip up a new dish EVERY meal. That's how awesome he is. Just realied I'm so much like him in so many ways. Anyway we LOOOVE eating homemade steam fish! We bought this fish a lot cause it only costs $5.50 for the whole fish at Vic Mark! And Dad would steam it differently each time.

Almost every morning I would wake up to nice bowl of porridge. Again, no two bowls of porridge ever tasted the same. Creative, my Dad, when it comes to cooking.

You may think this is Ri-DONK-ulous, but Dad bought this from the Dog's Food section at Vic Mark. It's only Lamb Brisket. What so crazy about that? Like Pork and Beef belly, but just LAMB. Seriously?! Ironic thing is our favourite roast lamb stall in Tawau would actually ONLY sell the brisket cause meat was tender and had a thin layer of fats in between which was just nice. Pfffft. Darn Aussies don't know what they're missing out on. Uber WIN for us Asians cause it only costs $2!!! Anyway here we roasted it and it was AWESOME.

My gosh, one of my ALL TIME favourite food growing up. "Huang Jiu Ji", aka Chinese Yellow Wine Chicken. Every time if I smelled this in the kitchen, I would be ecstatic and eat it with a MOUNTAIN of rice. Love this so much. And I'm SOOOO happy that Dad snuck a bottle of the Chinese Yellow Wine over cause you can't make this dish with any ordinary Chinese Wine and they don't friggin' sell it anywhere in Melbourne!! AAAAAAHH!!!

Garlic and Cheese Chicken Kievs from Coles I think? Yeah, Dad seriously went to the nearby Coles EVERY DAY, sometimes even twice a day. He loves going to the market and supermarket.

We only eat bacon when Dad is around. Not that we don't like it, just lazy to cook it for ourselves. And we won't have it any other way. Has to be slowly fried til crisp before sucking out all the oil completely. So nice and crunchy.

Red bean and lotus mooncake w/out egg =( that was brought over from KK. Ate it at the park under full moon on mooncake festival. Great experience. I think they were the Tai Thong brand. VERY nice, Mum!

ZOMGGG Sis made me the BEST Grilled Cheese Sandwich (with bacon) I've ever had in my LIFE!!! Gosh it tasted so friggin' amazing I wish I could have more right here right now. Thanks, Jie!!!

Bought Longans at Safeway! Though, back home we call it "Mata Kucing", or "Cat's Eye". One of my fondest childhood memories was plucking so much of these sweet mata kucings from our own tree in the backyard when it harvested for the first time one year.

(iii) Dishes I've prepared (and all for the first time! ;p)

Only until recently, I started to make more effort to cook cause Dad asked Sis to eat home more often after he left and I didn't want us to have to eat crappy food all the time. This is Creamy Butter Prawn, which turned out SURPRISINGLY good! Oh gosh. Tastes EXACTLY like the ones we loved ordering from restaurants back home. Only thing is I might have cooked the sauce for too long til the butter browned slightly cause I wanted to get as much flavour out of the chillies and curry leaves as I could. But fortunately taste was not compromised at all. I'll remember to not to cook it for too long next time so it looks better.

Cause Dad left us 3 dozens prawns in our fridge before he left. I decided to cook 3 different prawn dishes with them. And he left pineapple in the fridge too so I decided to make Sweet and Sour Prawn. Turned out pretty good, just not enough sauce than I'd hoped. Will make it sweeter than saltier next time too but was quite alright so I'm happy.

Something I've always wanted to do was to roast a whole leg of lamb in my kitchen. I did it with the most standard roast lamb recipe you can find. Garlic and Rosemary. And seasoned the entire lamb with Dijon Mustard + Salt + Pepper, that's it y'all.

Didn't turn out as cooked as I wanted so had to pop it back in the oven 2 more times. I think my oven is not as hot as most, but I really wanna learn to master my oven. Anyway final product turned out pretty good for first attempt actually. Though I wished I had made the effort to prepare gravy too. Just couldn't be bothered at the time cause was so tired from preparing the other two dishes.

Dinner that night: Mashed potato with diced onion and mushroom (I always make it this way) + Roast Lamb + Garlic and Chilli Prawn pasta (I just realised until later I forgot to melt butter to add more flavour! Quite happy with it nonetheless)

I don't know why, but I love leftover food and this leftover roast lamb tasted even better the next day for some reason ;p. Anyway, dinner the next night: Leftover lamb + Bovril soup + Omelette + Rice. SIMPLE AS. I only make an effort to cook when I'm cooking for someone else besides myself.

Made wonton for the first time too! I used minced chicken for some reason.

And it turned out SURPRISINGLY GOOD!!! Gosh... Anyway I think the key is to season the meat more strongly until you can actually smell it from where you're standing, trust me!

Finally made pancakes for lunch with the mix I got from Pancake on the Rocks. I plan to attempt to make my own jam this holiday after exams. Something I've always wanted to do. Plus, it sounds easy as.

Cooking Sarawak Laksa (with ALL the condiments too) for close to 40 ppl in my small apartment kitchen. FOAHHH. Amazing but so much pressure at the time. Too bad I didn't get to eat it cause I had to work that night. GAHH!

One of the things I've always wanted to do, was to cook an entire duck. Which was what I got to do. Decided to use one of my favourite duck recipes back home growing up: Superior Soy Sauce Braised Duck. Here I am glazing the duck both sides after melting the sugar.

And it turned out SURPRISINGLY GOOD (again)!! Aaaaaah I was so extremely happy with it cause it was so simple and tasted bloody amazing! And it's one of those dishes that you can eat tons of rice with cause of the excellent sauce. We loved it so much that it only took THREE of us to finish the ENTIRE duck. THANKS, MA, FOR THE RECIPE!!!

Left an egg with some sauce for my Sis cause she didn't join us for dinner the night before. And even my sis really really liked it which was amazing. It's so sad cause we don't have the heart to throw out the leftover sauce but yet we didn't want to finish all the sauce either even though it's not a lot. So now there's still about 2 tablespoons of this sauce left in my fridge til today =PPP

See what I made for myself when no one else is eating? Instant Rendang and Instant Corn Soup. BUTTT, I really really liked the corn soup even though it was reconstituted but just tasted sooo good. Even better when you have it with lots and lots of Sarawak White Pepper (brought over from KK!) or have some leftover and can have it for supper or lunch the next day.

Anyway, just wanna say sorry if I sounded a bit too enthusiastic about my own cooking. It's just that not too long ago I was someone who could barely cook a decent meal, independent student overseas who's never had to cook for himself his entire life.

And all this began to change only recently when I decided to see if I can actually cook properly. And as it turns out I'm not as hopeless as I thought. Also enjoyed every moment of it! So, yeah. Please bear with me and forgive my loserness as I continue to cultivate my new found hobby with more exciting new dishes and recipes.

I had so much fun blogging this post and I hope you enjoy reading/looking at them too.

Blessings!