Sichuan Restaurant 川妹子

Join my friend to Sichuan Restaurant in Greenwich for Sichuan hot pot. Try it once before, never really like it. But, would like to try again.

There are two type of soup bases- chinese herb chicken soup and the super hot spicy Sichuan style. Prefer the clear chinese herb chicken soup.

Address: Millenium Leisure Park, Bugsbys Way, London SE10 0QJ

Homemade Kaya - Egg Custard with Coconut Milk

Missing the Malaysian Kopitiam's kaya and butter toast! Since making the Bah kwa, think will be easy to make this kaya on spot. However, this is not the case!!!

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• half cup of brown sugar
• half canned of thick coconut milk

Preparations:

1. Mix the eggs in a big bowl together with the brown sugar.
2. Slowly add the coconut milk and mix them well.
3. Put the mixture into a non-stick pot and leave the pot on low gas's cooking stove.
4. Continuously stir till the mixture thickening. (Most tedious part)
5. Turn off the gas and leave the mixture cool before put into the fridge.

Homemade Bak kwa (or rougan or 肉干or jerk pork).

Craving for Malaysian Bak kwa, which is now is a prohibited food to United Kingdom .However, the ready packed Bak kwa from the local shops is not as good as before, they have added lots of preservatives. Well, always think it is a super difficult task to make Bak kwa, saw people sweat to make them like satay under the sun in Malaysia. Till I met my best mates , her recipe is superb! I have added couple of tweaks, making them like mini pizza with different ingredients (eg black pepper). This is from my experience of  trying Hong Kong version of Bak kwa, they always add different ingredients to the Bak kwa

http://live2eatfoodie.blogspot.com/2011/01/chinese-new-year-goodies-bak-kwa.html

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes of 500grams mince pork
• 4 tablespoonfuls of oyster sauce
• 1/4 teaspoonful of baking soda power
• 2 teaspoonfuls of light soya sauce
• 2 drops of dark soya sauce
• half cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoonful of fish sauce
• Black pepper (optional)

Preparations:

1. Marinate the meat with the above ingredients for over night in a big bowl and leave in the fridge for overnight.
2. Lay foil on the cooking baking tray, scoop the meat mixture on top of the foil using fork. Spread around the tray and then cover with cling film. Use a chopping board to press the meat gently.
3. For black pepper version, sprinkle the black pepper on top of the mixture. (Optional)
4. Leave it in 80C oven for 45 minutes. After that turn the tempeture to 120C and leave it for 15 minutes.
5. This is the best part, grill it for 6 minutes on each sides. Make sure it turns into redish.
6. Leave it to cool down then cut into pieces.

My next steps..... thinking of making more different toppings :)

WANTAN/ WONTON/ 雲吞 MOOD

Ingredients

•  1 box of mince pork
•  1 box of peeled shrimp
•  1 teaspoon brown sugar 
•  2 tablespoon light soy sauce
• some finely chopped spring onion
• 1 pack of ready made (3.5 inch square) wonton wrappers

Preparations

1. In a large bowl, combine mince pork, shrimp, sugar, soy sauce, spring onion. Mixed them well, and leave it for 25 to 30 minutes.
2. Place about one teaspoon of the filling at the center of each wonton skin. Moisten all 4 edges of wonton wrapper with water, then pull the top corner down to the bottom, folding the wrapper over the filling to make a triangle. Press edges firmly to make a seal. Continue until all wrappers are used.
3. FOR SOUP: Bring the chicken stock/ fish sauce to a rolling boil. Drop wontons in, and cook for 5 minutes. Garnish with chopped green onion, and serve.
4. FOR FRIED. Make sure the oil is deep boil, put in the wontons and quickly take it out as soon as it becomes brownish.

C&R CAFE RESTAURANT

This is my favourite Malaysian cuisine restaurant for many many years. They serve great Penang prawn noodles and Wan Tan Ho. Well, I only have one stomach for one dish, this trip I only have the Penang prawn noodles. You can ask for mixed mee and meehoon.

Address: 3-4 Rupert Court, London, W1D 6DY

NEC BIRMINGHAM- AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL- THE RACING CAR SHOW- 15 JANUARY 2011

It has been an interesting experience of joining my friends to this NEC Birmingham Autosport International, The Racing Car Show.

McLaren Showcase

Headlined by the iconic MP4/4, the car that gave Ayrton Senna his first F1 World Championship title in 1988, this exclusive exhibit will showcase several remarkable historic McLaren cars as well as the much-anticipated new road car, the MP4-12C.




Met the stars

Fifth Gear Presenters Jason Plato & Tiff Needell
Touring car hero Jason Plato with former Formula One driver turned motoring personality Tiff Needell have  host exhilarating wheel-to-wheel action and record-breaking stunts in the Fifth Gear Live Action Arena. Never watch this program in my life, but find it very interesting to be in the live show!

Jake Humphrey
The current BBC's Formula 1 presenter  Jake Humphrey also in the commentary show. His presenting career began in 2005 as a Match reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live and since then has become a extremely successful sports commentator.





Saw lots of nice and expensive cars there, really interested me, from Ferrari, Porche, etc..... now the car I wanted the most is Nissan Juke. The design is great, with super comfy seats and matching colors. Is an super ideal car for me. I like the red Juke very much and set my self new saving goals. This is my gain from the show today :)

http://www.nissanusa.com/juke/

HOME COOKING- FULL BREAKFAST

Have not done this in ages. Fancy a full breakfast for the start of the day. Is fattening, which I know, but couldn't really resisted it!

PANCAKES BREAKFAST

 

Loving pancakes as breakfast. Making the basic pancakes, then eat them with strawberry jam, chocolate spread, peanuts butter, kaya etc. etc. etc.

Ingredients:

• 1 cups all-purpose flour, stirred or sifted before measuringr
• 2 ablespoons granulated sugar
• small pinch of salt
• an large egg
• 1/4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation:

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and 1 1/2 cups of milk; add to flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Blend in melted butter.

3. If the batter seems too thick to pour, add a little more cold water.

4. Cook on a hot, greased griddle, using about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake.

5. Cook until bubbly, a little dry around the edges, and lightly browned on the bottom; turn and brown the other side.

冬瓜薏米瘦肉汤

Found this interesting soup recipe. Been dying to try various different soup recipies to improve better diet.

摘要

　　冬瓜薏米瘦肉汤祛湿除斑，养血益颜。用于面部色素沉着，时有眼睑浮肿或脸色黑褐无华;或大便秘结，面部皮肤粗糙;或小便不利，湿痰咳嗽等，是孕前的一款好食谱。

材料

　　猪瘦肉250克、冬瓜1500克、薏米100克、陈皮2小片。

做法

　　冬瓜连皮留瓜仁，洗净切块;薏米、陈皮洗净;瘦肉洗净切块。把陈皮放入水中煮滚，再放入全部用料，武火煮滚后，改文火煲2小时，调味食用。

功效

　　祛湿除斑，养血益颜。用于面部色素沉着，时有眼睑浮肿或脸色黑褐无华;或大便秘结，面部皮肤粗糙;或小便不利，湿痰咳嗽等。

　　本汤根据《医心方》所述隋炀帝后宫美容用品变化而成。面部色素沉着，可因湿浊停聚、水道不畅、肠道不通而致，治以祛湿浊、利二便。汤中冬瓜性味甘、淡，功能利水祛湿，通利二便，清肺化痰，《滇南本草》说它能“止渴、消痰、利小便”。薏米，又名薏苡仁，性味甘、淡，功能清利湿热、健脾消痈。《本草新编》说“薏苡仁最善利水，不至耗损真阴之气”。陈皮性味辛、苦，功能理气健脾、燥湿化痰，所含挥发油对消化道有温和的刺激作用，能促进胃液分泌，有助于消化。猪瘦肉有健脾、养血的作用。合而为汤，共奏祛湿健脾、除斑洁面之功。本汤亦为减肥常用之汤品。


From website: http://baike.baidu.com/view/243732.html?fromTaglist

Busaba Eathai Thai Restaurant

After the disappointment of not buying any bags in PRADA, where the value and the quality of the bag doesn't come together, me and my friend were both extremely hungry. We have discovered this restaurant at the entrance of the Bicester Village from the car park.

Busaba Eathai is modern Thai eatery, which conceived by Alan Yau. Busaba is a Thai flower. Eathai is a fusion of the words eat and Thai. After been to the website, just notice that this restaurant actually have some branches in London! 

When I first entered into the restaurant, the decoration is really asian-oriented, with the triangle shape of atap, large square tables and benches (which remind me about the school canteen).

Ordered two dishes for stomach quick fix.

1. Soup noodle

Tom yam talay

prawn, squid and baby clam with vermicelli noodle in spicy sour soup (s)- Cost £6.70.

Very small portion. The tom yam soup is very mild and not up to the taste. Quite disappointed with this dish.

2. Wok noodle

Sen chan pad Thai

rice noodle with prawn, peanut, egg, green mango and crabmeat (s)- Cost £8.90.

Quite like the noodle as it is not very oily. But, couldn't taste much of the green mango and crabmeat in the noodle.

There is another branch which recomended by my friend long time ago on Oxford street. There are long queques, therefore never able to make it there. For more information, see http://busaba.com/#sanuk=true&history=true