I love my food...

Last Friday’s dinner was awful. A plate of ‘fried rice’ and ‘daging masak merah’ from the food court in Tesco Extra really make me feel sad. The so called ‘fried rice’ looks pretty much like plain rice fried in ketchup with only two pieces of peas. No other veggies or even onion in sight! Can you believe it? The ‘daging masak merah’ doesn’t really have taste and the sauce was really runny.. and both of them costed me RM4.90. I still finished them, because it I’d feel very bad if I throw it. Think about others that do not have food, and here I am complaining about meal. Anyway, I just sulk and eat it.



You see, I really love my food. I cannot stand substandard food. I strongly believe that it food is a gift and they are abundance. Food is something that should be respected and enjoyed. That’s why I feel miserable when my meal was not up to the standard. The stall claims that they are selling “Hot Thai Food”. The cooks are Bangladeshi men which I doubt the owner trained properly in cooking Thai food. I have nothing against them but I feel cheated. In my opinion, they should at least know how to cook fried rice. Higher raw material price is not an excuse to reduce the status of ‘fried rice’ to just ‘rice fried in ketchup with two peas’. At least do your customer a favor and put some onion and garlic and some veggies. Do you think I will go back to this stall? No way!


What do you think I’d do the next day? You bet it! I went to Tesco and bought some meat, kailan, some beef lung and fish. I rarely came across kailan and fresh fish in Tesco. I believed my desire to have them was so strong that God answer it and there they were.. I was so happy and bought some for next week stock as well. I treated myself to a hearty lunch to compensate for what my previous dinner was lacking.


I made ‘kailan ikan masin’, my own version of ‘daging masak merah’ with lots of red onion, fried fish, and crispy beef lung with some mean ‘sambal belacan’. I compliment it with ice lemon tea… Ohmmmppppphhh.. What a great lunch.

Quick Fix: White Tagliatelle

After a long and stressful day at work, the last thing that you want to do is to slog for another hour in the kitchen trying to fix dinner. Well, this simple recipe is based on common ingredients in your pantry. It will take you about 20 minutes to prepare and can be further modified by adding leftover chicken or meat.

What you need:

70g of tagliatelle (This is enough for one person. You can also use other type of pasta if you prefer) Some water to cook the pasta A packet of mushroom chicken soup powder (~16g per packet. It can be of any brand that you like)
150ml boiling water for making the soup
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
Lemon wedges Flat parsley or other fresh herbs (chopped finely)
Knob of butter to fry the garlic
3 cherry tomatoes (halved)
2 bird eyes chilies (you can deseed it if you can't tolerate the heat. Chop the chilies nicely)
Black pepper, a dash of salt to taste, sprinkled of cheddar cheese

To cook it:

1) Cook the pasta according to packet instruction – typically it will take about 10-12 minutes depending on the make. Just cook until al-dente and drain it

2) Meanwhile, prepare the mushroom chicken soup by adding the hot water into the powder and stir it (you can use cups or small bowl to hold the soup). You need to work quickly once you mix them as the soup will thicken as it get colder. This mixture will be your white sauce

3) Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the chicken/meat leftover if using. If not, just add

in the pasta and mix it

4) Stir in the mushroom soup, black pepper, salt and continue to heat until the sauce thickens. You may add in the cheese at this time

5) Add in chopped herbs, chilies, cherry tomatoes and squeeze the lemon juice into the pasta. You can add more if you prefer

6) Once the pasta sauce thickens slightly, you can turn of the heat. Serve immediately

Honeyed Five Spice Chicken Pocket

One of my favourite pastime is trying out new recipes. Last weekend, I'd made "honeyed five spice chicken pocket" for my brunch. The recipes is from the book Healthy One Dish Cooking that I bought from Reader's Digest few months ago. The basic recipe is simple and I have modify it slightly based on the stuffs that readily available in my pantry :)

This simple meal take about 40 minutes preparation time, including the marinating of the chicken. I think the chicken will taste much better if I allow it to marinate longer but my tummy is hungry. So, I just marinate it for half and hour. Cooking time take about 20 minutes and the stuffs I prepared is enough for 3-4 people. You can always reduced the amount if your are cooking for fewer people.

What do you need?

1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice
2 tbsp honey (or more if you like it sweeter)
1/2 tsp five spice powder
3 skinless chicken breast fillets
4 large pita bread (use wholemeal pita bread if you are a health conscious)
3 lettuce leaves, shredded
16 cherry tomatoes, halved (If you don't have cherry tomatoes, you can use normal tomatoes but it will be less sweeter)
1 carrot, peeled and coarsely grated ( I do not really have a grater, so I try to julienned it)

To make the lemon and herb yogurt dressing, you'd need:

1/2 cup (130g) natural yogurt (use low fat if you are health conscious)
1/2 lemon, zest grated and juiced (you can get about 2 tsp of juice)
2 tbsp of chopped fresh flat parsley (get it from the herb section in your supermarket. You can also use other herbs such as dill or chives.. whichever you prefer.. just don't use oregano or other strong smelling herbs please.. )

How to make it?

1) Combine lemon + honey + five spice powder in a shallow dish that is large enough to hold the chicken breast in single layer. Mix together until well blended. Make some deep slashes in each chicken breast and put it into the dish. Rub the marinade all over the chicken, ensuring that it get into the slashes. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate it in the fridge for 30 minutes

2) To make the dressing, blend/mix the yogurt + lemon zest + juice + parsley and season to taste. Cover and chill until you need it

3) Bring the chicken to room temperature and grill the chicken for about 20 minutes (or until cook). Occasionally, baste the chicken with the marinate and turn in to the other side halfway into cooking. Once the chicken is done, thinly sliced it diagonally and set aside to cool

4) Sprinkle the pita bread with little water and warm it under grill for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, toss the lettuce, tomatoes and carrot with the dressing. Slice open one side of each pita bread and make a pocket. Stuff the chicken and the salad into the pocket and serve immediately

How does it taste?

The five spice powder adds some Asian flavour to the pita bread sandwich. I would prefer to add in more seasoning to the chicken so that it has more bodied taste. I'd add in some garlic and ginger if I were to do it again. The dressing has a refreshing taste and taste much better with normal yogurt (as compared to low fat). Adding lemon juice to the yogurt make it thinner and it also make the dressing too sour for my liking. The dressing taste a bit bland, so I spiced it up with sprinkling of chopped bird eye chilies and some salt. A dash of Tabasco sauce can also add colour to it. Instead of tossing the lettuce, tomatoes and carrot with the dressing I just spoon the dressing over the assembled pita.

It is simple dish and the chicken and dressing can be made in advance and we can have this as cold sandwich instead. Using pita instead of sandwich bread really make you feel full afterwards. I prefer to dip the chicken directly into the dressing while it still hot rather than having it with pita or any other type of bread. The mild sweetness of the chicken complement the the dressing very well.

I'd give this recipes 3 out of 5 stars.