I had the last pong pneah today. No more malaysian biscuits/cookies left. And that’s the two golf balls I picked up few days ago.

This is too easy!

My list of must eats in Malaysia:
1. wonton mee & sui-kow (***)
2. dim sum (**)
3. lots of seafood (****)
4. char koay teow (*)
5. hokkien mee (*)
6. chicken rice (***)
7. roast duck rice (*)
8. bak kut teh (***)
9. hokkien char (**)
10. roti canai (****)
11. indian mee goreng (***)
12. roast pork rice (***)
13. koay teow th’ng (*)
14. satay (*)
15. KFC hot and spicy (**)
16. egg tart (****)
17. curry mee (**)
18. chendol (****)
19. Aaron’s two special meals (***)
20. nasi lemak (*)
21. steamboat (*)
22. indian rojak/pasembor (***)
23. nyonya kuih (**)
24. 100-plus (*)
25. Shogun buffet (**)
26. bak-chang (***)
27. ais-krim potong (*)
28. char hor fun (****)

Unlisted food accomplishments
29. Ampang yong tau fu
30. pan mee
31. assam laksa
32. lor bak
33. beef koay teow (both Malaysian and Vietnamese style)
34. rice porridge steamboat
35. one korean meal
36. and lots and lots of airplane meals!

(*) accomplished during Week 1
(**) accomplished during/by Week 2
(***) accomplished during/by Week 3
(****) accomplished during/by Week 4

What a wonderful picture, plus I made all the wonderful food in it. The vegetable kebabs were a great idea until I started skewering the vegetable and it took me a long time!

The tandoori chicken (on the grill in the picture below) turned out to be a great hit, the honey soy sauce chicken was less of a hit but they still looked and tasted good. The vegetable kebabs were well received, but personally, I felt I had overmarinated the vegetables. The zucchini looked more like pickles than garden fresh zucchini. Cooking the tomyam beehoon was rather challenging, I still have no idea what’s the proper way to do it. I need fry-beehoon instruction!

Syahrul brought sambal and a big tray of fried rice with shrimps – both were delicious. After everyone left and I managed to clear up everything, I finally sat down at 12:30am to enjoy the leftover fried rice and sambal.

By the way, I forgot to take deep breaths today.

At times like this I wonder why I do this to myself – planning a party is stressful work. I spent the whole day running around (actually driving around): returned one item at Marshall’s, bought some items at Giants, picked up Marvin’s graduation hood and gown from the bookstore, went to Valley Farm market to get vegetables, picked up halal chicken from Ika, went to Saturday evening service, and then one last trip to Walmart to buy a metal tong. I’m sort of drained out now but I have five cut-up chicken and assorted vegetables in the fridge waiting for me to start work.

List of things to do tonight:
1. Marinate half of the chicken with honey soy sauce mixture
2. Marinate the other half of the chicken with tandoori yogurt mixture
3. Wash and cut zucchini, green/orange/yellow peppers and mushroom
4. Marinate cut vegetables
5. Soak bamboo skewers in water

List of things to do tomorrow:
1. Make more ice
2. Assemble vegetable kebabs: pineapple cubes, cherry tomatoes, mushroom, zucchini, green/yellow/orange peppers
3. Cook tomyam beehoon
4. Pick-up some people from lower campus
5. Remember to take deep breaths
6. Have a good time
7. Major clean-up afterwards

Here is to recycling good stuff – my makan list from 1.5 years ago. It is still relevant, not outdated, but needs some minor changes. Since I’ll be back for 28 days, I’ll list 28 items; one for each day.

My list of must eats in Malaysia:
1. wonton mee & sui-kow
2. dim sum
3. lots of seafood
4. char koay teow
5. hokkien mee
6. chicken rice
7. roast duck rice
8. bak kut teh
9. hokkien char
10. roti canai
11. indian mee goreng
12. roast pork rice
13. koay teow th’ng
14. satay
15. KFC hot and spicy (there’s KFC here but not as good)
16. egg tart
17. curry mee
18. chendol
19. Aaron’s two special meals (Aaron said that the meal he prepared during my last trip wasn’t a special one because he didn’t have time to make a special one. So in that case, let’s just make it two special meals this time!)
20. nasi lemak
21. steamboat
22. indian rojak/pasembor
23. nyonya kuih
24. 100-plus (I know this is not food, but I really miss it)
25. Shogun buffet
26. bak-chang
27. ais-krim potong
28. char hor fun

cucumber kimchi

Ever since a korean acquaintance-friend gushed about how much she loves cucumber kimchi, I’ve been rather fascinated by it. My mom tried to make it once but it didn’t turn out well. I was at the korean grocery store yesterday and saw freshly-made cucumber kimchi, so I bought a small packet. But it was ridiculously expensive – $4.99 for 4 cucumber halves! From now on, I’m going to make my own cucumber kimchi….one of these days, anyway.

And here’s what I bought:
Red cargo rice (5lb) – $3.99
Dang-myeon (jab-chae noodle; 2 packs) – $4.98
Sesame oil – $4.49
Coconut milk (2 cans) – $0.99
Roasted hot pepper paste – $3.99
Dried seaweed – $3.89
MAMA shrimp creamy tomyam noodle (1box=20packs) – $4.99
Pojangmacha U-dong instant noodle (1box=20packs) – $9.99
Unagi kabayaki (frozen roasted eel; 2 packs) – $5.98
Spinach (2 bunches) – $0.99
Baby peeled carrots – $0.99
Cucumber kimchi – $4.99 (Ouch!)

I went overboard with the instant noodles, but it was so much cheaper buying by the box than individual packs. Oh and by the way, unscented durians cost $0.99 per pound.

Reunion dinner

Since I’m still in the midst of completing my qualifier and my body is still aching from yesterday’s snow “battle”, I didn’t plan to invite anyone over for a reunion dinner. But I have to eat anyway, and Mei gave me a call at the most opportune time, so I invited her to join me for dinner. We had:
1. Korean bbq beef (my own secret recipe)
2. Baked but-unfortunately-too-salty assam shrimp
3. Kimchi soup
4. Romaine lettuce (auspicious sang-choy), spinach, and baby carrots
5. Korean hot pepper paste dip (another secret recipe)
6. Pomegranate herb tea

It was a wrap-beef-in-lettuce sort of meal. Simple yet delicious.

jab chae

My first attempt at making jab-chae. It turned out pretty good. But I do believe I need some food photography tips from Aaron.

korean food

Here is the korean fare that I had last night: korean bbq beef and pork, hot pepper stew with fishcake and ricecake, jabchae, red bean glutinous porridge, seasoned ikan bilis, cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi. And it is all good.

I did manage to watch Aunty Han make her jabchae, so I’ll try that one of these days.

This morning, Aunty Han was busy making radish kimchi, and she also took out the not-very-good kimchi that I made some time ago and re-seasoned it for me. I think the more times I try to make kimchi, the worse it tastes. I added one very expensive korean pear, supposedly the secret ingredient, to my latest kimchi. But this batch turned out to be, I have to say, the oddest tasting kimchi that I’ve made so far.

chinese take-out

Occasionally when I start craving for chinese food, I’ll go to the nearby chinese buffet restaurant. But instead of eating there, which will cost me around $8, I will carry-out (tah pau) instead. The carry out rate is $3.29 per lb of food. The packet shown here costs $2.60. If you think that your neighborhood mix rice (chap farn) store lacks variety, welcome to my world. The restaurant offers the same buffet line day-in and day-out. So, what’s in the box?
- walnut chicken (but there’s no visible sign of any walnuts)
- shrimp and corn
- chicken and broccoli (but I only took the broccoli)
- General Tso’s chicken (the dark colored matter in the middle)
- stir fried green beans
- fried imitation scallops
- lobster roll