Foodarrific

One Sunday afternoon, we were in the vicinity of Sri Hartamas and ended up at Soho KL tucked away in a swanky part of town. After walking around undecided, we finally settled on Ole-Ole Bali, an Balinese (Indonesian) restaurant with both an indoor and an al fresco dining area. We chose to sit outside as only a couple of tables were occupied and there didn’t seem to be any smokers.

We ordered this Nasi Campur Ole Ole (Mixed Rice, literally) which comes with various accompaniments like shrimp, squid, chicken on a lemongrass stick, stir-fried veggie, salad and assorted sauces. Interesting and quite tasty.

The Ole-Ole Trio was also quite interesting with chicken on lemongrass sticks, crispy deep-fried shrimp, barbecued chicken wings, sliced cucumbers, tartar sauce and chilly sauces.

My son, who prefers Western food, ordered the next best thing, the BBQ Combo with chicken and lamb which turned out not to taste very Western after all. The lamb was tough and he didn’t like the taste of the sauce.

My other Western food lover decided the safest bet would be the more familiar-sounding Chicken and Chips. It tasted okay, just like any ordinary deep-fried chicken chop.

The food is interesting and presentation is great. The way we were eating, it was a good thing we decided to share our orders or we might’ve needed something akin to an rv towing service to get out of our seats. Indeed we would’ve been able to eat more if the food hadn’t been so overly greasy and salty. You know how I feel about that. I wouldn’t be in any hurry to go back again unless my bank account is overflowing .

Filed under: AsianMeatPoultryReviewsSauces & CondimentsSeafoodVegetables by chili queen - No Comments →

We were on vacation in Penang last week (read and see the photos here, here and here) and decided to check out Strada, a small restaurant tucked in a row of shophouses in busy Pulau Tikus. We’d read good online reviews about this place and thought, why not, since the set lunches seem reasonably priced.

The sets come with either soup of the day, which was Pumpkin Soup that day, or salad. Unfortunately the Pumpkin Soup was sweet and bland (if you can imagine that!) and none of us finished up our order, which is something we hardly ever do since my philosophy is not to waste food.

The salad came with the default dressing which means we didn’t get to choose our favorite dressing.

The Chicken Chop with Oriental Sauce was nothing to shout about either. The sauce was more like a pizza base.

I hate to say this but this Spaghetti alla Vongole was really hard to swallow. The presentation was great so I guess I set my expectations too high. It was bland (which is better than too salty, I guess) and the sauce was like some Chinese gravy?

The Salmon Fish and Chips was, by far, the best thing we had there though the portion was rather skimpy.

It’s a shame the quality of Strada’s food didn’t live up to the nice ambience of the restaurant. I guess if you don’t try it, you’ll never know, which also confirms my philosophy of not chasing down food no matter how good the reviews are made to sound.

On the day we were there for lunch, only a couple of other tables were occupied. There was a small family and 3 ladies discussing mortgage protection insurance rates.

Filed under: MeatPastaPoultryReviewsSeafoodVegetablesWestern by chili queen - No Comments →

I had some uncooked beef balls left over from our spaghetti lunch which I refrigerated overnight. The next day, I decided to try something different with them.

For these beef balls, I used very simple ingredients. Again I don’t really see the need to measure the ingredients.

• ground beef
• cornflour
• breadcrumbs
• paprika
• salt and pepper

Simply mix the ground beef with corn flour, breadcrumbs and seasoning of salt and pepper. Stir well till everything comes together. Then heap a spoonful onto my palm and roll them into balls. One of the easiest jobs in the world .

I keep the seasoning pretty basic because I want the beef balls to complement (not overpower) the spaghetti sauce, or whatever I pair them with.

In a pan with a fair amount of oil on high heat, I drop in the beef balls and let them fry for about 10 minutes before removing to a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the excess oil.

To my surprise, the fried beef balls turned out to be even more of a hit than the spaghetti ones . Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I served them with fried egg over instant noodles for a quick, lazy lunch.

Filed under: FusionKid-friendlyMeatQuick & Easy CookingRecipes by chili queen - 1 Comment →

Roast pork eaten fresh with steaming hot rice is great. But I think leftovers are even better if you do what I do .

Many times I buy extra just so I can keep some in the fridge for the next day. It’s quite hard and not as tasty if you just pull it out of the fridge and reheat it. Here’s what I do with my leftover roast pork.

First I cut up the larger pieces into smaller pieces. With my wok on medium heat, I saute a few cloves of chopped garlic and when it’s fragrant, I add the roast pork. Then in goes a teeny-weeny drizzle of dark soy sauce, a teaspoon of sugar and a small splash of soy sauce.

Saute for about 7 minutes or so to ensure all the roast pork pieces are coated with the sauces and the roast pork skins brown lightly to a crisp.

In a fraction of the time it takes for me to get my secure online backup done, I’m ready to serve my aromatic leftover roast pork with steaming hot rice and fresh sliced cucumbers. Seriously put your nose to the roast pork and breathe in. Heaven ! You gotta try this!

Filed under: AsianMeatRecipes by chili queen - 1 Comment →

This week has been nothing short of crazy so I’ll excuse myself for forgetting that I still have pork chops stashed away in my freezer . Yes, I would’ve loved a break even if it meant hiding under motorcycle covers where no one can find me. At any rate, my frozen find was timely and made for a perfect dinner treat.

As y’all know, I’m known to grab and throw whatever ingredients I can get my hands on to concoct my own fancy recipe. So the ingredients for this, my very simple yet surprisingly delicious pork chops, are stuff you can probably find in any kitchen:

• 8 slices of pork chops, defrosted
• 4-5 tablespoons barbecue sauce
• black pepper
• tomatoes, whole
• potatoes, chunked
• 2 sticks celery, sliced 2″ lengths
• 1 carrot, sliced 2″ lengths
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

I marinate the pork chops with salt, pepper, black pepper and barbecue sauce for a couple of hours. I would normally roast or grill the pork chops and you can do that, but my oven seems to have given up the ghost so I have to panfry them instead.

With my non-stick pan on medium heat and a good drizzle of olive oil, I sear the first batch of pork chop for several minutes on each side. To ensure the meat cooks through (yes, I’m paranoid about undercooking!), I add a splash of water to the pan and let everything sit for about 5-10 minutes till the water has fully evaporated and the outside of the pork chop starts to blacken a little.

When I’m done cooking the pork chops, I heat some olive oil in the pan and sear the tomatoes for like 5 minutes just to take the raw edge off a little bit. Meantime, I boil the potatoes in another pot. Once soft, I remove from the water and similarly sear them in my non-stick pan to give them a bit of a crust.

I boil another pot of water for blanching the celery and carrots. I mix the hot, blanched veggies with a generous blob of butter. Yum. And it’s time to dig in. A meal so simple yet so healthy with a little bit from each food group. Give it a try!

Filed under: Healthy EatingKid-friendlyMeatRecipesVegetables by chili queen - No Comments →