Foodarrific

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 →

Every other weekend, we’ve been walking past this new food court at The Curve where they’re serving a rather plain-looking porridge with yau char kwai (Chinese crullers). It looks appetizing and I couldn’t wait to cook my own porridge at home. I prefer my porridge a little more fancy and nutritious.

Boiling the porridge is really simple. Just wash the rice and then add about double the amount of water (or chicken stock for a more flavorful result) in a pot over medium heat. When the water comes to a boil, I add in my sliced chicken, carrot chunks and baby abalone we bought from Japan. Keep it on the boil until the rice softens and opens up.

The thing about making porridge is it requires patience and endless peeking into the pot to ensure you achieve your preferred consistency. I prefer a thicker porridge. Some people prefer a more watery porridge in which case you simply add more water. See, no need to go to Porridge School and wait for the graduation announcements to see if you passed the course .

Lastly cut up the yau char kwai, or Chinese crullers, into 1-2″ lengths. I typically serve them on a common plate so each person can take however much they want and top it over their own bowl of porridge. With just a few ingredients, the porridge turns out really flavorful. Try it!

Filed under: AsianKid-friendlyOne-dish MealsPoultryQuick & Easy CookingRecipesRice & NoodlesSeafoodSnacks & Desserts by chili queen - 2 Comments →

There are so many things I love about the California roll (or handroll, as they’re sometimes called) I don’t quite know where to begin. For one thing, it uses healthy ingredients like fresh raw carrots and cucumbers, and nori, or toasted dried seaweed which is a great source of iron, calcium, vitamin A and B, iodine and fiber.

For another, it’s so easy to make I can literally lay out the ingredients on the table and whoever walks into the kitchen can easily wrap one up and chomp on it right away.

Well, since we won’t be going on any Vegas vacations this year, I thought we’d stay home and make these. DH bought the large crispy toasted nori sheets from a trip to Japan. I’m making two variations here – one with smoked salmon, and the other with crab sticks – just to make my kids happy that they have a choice .

The ingredients I use:

• large nori, or toasted seaweed sheets
• cooked white rice (the thing to use is sticky rice but I use regular rice, tastewise I don’t think it makes much of a difference)
• crab sticks
• smoked salmon slices
• cucumbers, long and thinly sliced into sticks
• carrots, long and thinly sliced into sticks
• Japanese mayonnaise
• wasabi, or Japanese green mustard

First I place a nori sheet on a flat surface or plate. At that spot on the lower half of the nori sheet where I’m going to place a tablespoon of rice, I squeeze just a little wasabi, or green mustard. Wasabi is deadly spicy and has a pungent sting to it, so you may want to use very little, or none at all if you’re serving it to kids.

Then I layer on a slice of smoked salmon or a crab stick, and 2 or 3 cucumber and carrot sticks. The best part is squeezing a squiggly line of Japanese mayonnaise all the way over the top of the filling.

Now it’s time to wrap the whole thing into a cone. The mayo at the top layer will ‘glue’ the wrap nicely together, and you can add a little more at the end to make the cone hold its shape better.

And that’s basically it. It’s not hard, just takes a bit of practice to get the cone all nice and neat. I’m not picky so I just let the kids get creative. Sometimes they roll it up like a cigar. So try it and have fun with it .

Filed under: AsianHealthy EatingKid-friendlyNo Cooking RequiredOne-dish MealsRecipesSeafoodVegetables by chili queen - No Comments →

Salmon is my favorite fish and it’s also one of the few types of fish that’s not bony that my kids will eat. I love it because it’s healthy and cooking it barely involves much work at all.

Since we won’t be going out too much due to the flu pandemic and we certainly haven’t got any Orlando vacations planned, I can afford to spend more time in the kitchen these days.

I just pat dry a couple of salmon fillets after rinsing them off. With my non-stick pan on medium, I heat up a little bit of butter. Once the pan is hot, I throw in the salmon fillets with a few cloves of chopped garlic and a pinch of salt, quickly reducing the heat to low.

I leave the fillets to brown and cook through slowly for about 5-7 minutes on each side. You can leave it for a while longer to get it crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. To test if it’s cooked, I pierce the fillet with my chopsticks or a fork. If it’s cooked, it should be flaky.

Most times, we eat this lovely garlicky buttery salmon with a very light pasta. A thick, heavy pasta sauce will overpower the beautiful lightness of this very simple yet delicious panfried salmon.

Filed under: Healthy EatingKid-friendlyPastaRecipesSeafoodWestern by chili queen - 1 Comment →

One of the dishes we regularly have to go with rice is stirfried kailan. With ginger and fish slices, of course. I haven’t cooked this in a while which is why I’m kinda bringing it up now, as a sort of reminder to myself to cook this delicious dish soon .

What you need are:

• 2 fish fillets, diced into fairly big chunks
• 5 stalks kailan, or kale – cut the stems to 2-inch lengths and the leaves to 1-inch lengths
• 1-2 knobs ginger, sliced thinly
• siew heng zhao, or Chinese cooking wine
• 2-3 Tsp oyster sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

I typically heat up a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in my wok, then throw in the ginger slices. In Chinese cooking, you need to use high heat and be quick to the stirfy. So I swish the ginger around for maybe 30 seconds and then add the fish fillet followed by oyster sauce. The ginger gets rid of the fishy taste.

I keep frying to let the fish soak up all that flavor before adding the stems. Stems take longer to cook so that’s why they go in first. At this  point, I add a good splash of water as I like it with lots of gravy. It’s up to you. I cover the wok for about 2 minutes so that as the water boils, it cooks through the stems.

Then in go the kailan leaves. Give everything a good mix. You should see the kailan leaves soften. After that, give it a good drizzle of siew heng zhao, or Chinese cooking wine all round. Add salt and pepper to taste. Give it another good stir and it’s ready to serve.

What I really love about this dish is the aroma of the wine and that it’s healthy too, certainly not one that will send you scrambling around for a fat burner review after you eat it. So give it a try.

Filed under: AsianRecipesSeafoodVegetables by chili queen - No Comments →