Tepee

Just want to mention that I used glucose syrup instead of corn syrup, and I dusted entirely with potato starch to cut off some sweetness.

Woooohoooo! I did it! I did it! Thank you so much, Nightscotsman, and, all of you who posted your experience with his recipe. It's the best marshmallow I've ever tasted and I didn't even use puree. I can just imagine how heavenly those with puree in it will taste. I made 2 layers; one, rose-flavored, and, the other, pandan-flavored. I'll never buy commercial marshmallows again, that's for sure!

You can say that again...I just made a batch of Nightscotsman's marshmallow using pandan essence.....and because it smelled un-pandan-y, I added pandan paste (from Indonesia). It smells so artificial, and has probably ruined my batch of marshmallows. I totally deserve this, for not taking the trouble to make my own fresh juice. But, hey, my pandan plant is a bit botak (bald), and I'll have to pinch my neighbors if I were to make the juice...........off to look for more excuse..........

One little story and you guys are freaked out???? Such a fragile disposition! I'll be good and leave the other stories for after the festival.

The hotel stay included breakfast, and, yes, we had our happy share of nasi dagang with kuah ikan tongkol. There's also some interesting rice and coconut wrapped in little triangular cones; had that with beef serunding. Went back for seconds and thirds....you get the picture.

Er...are you a Muslim? If you are, you may not be too keen about this dish. Since the majority of our group are Hakka chinese (my hubby being the lone Teochew), we ordered the Hakka kau yook, streaky pork steamed with yam. That was good too. Ah, I'll take this opportunity to add something I missed in my original post. We tried another restaurant called River Bend a few doors away from the infamous Tong Juan the following night. This was also recommended to us, but we dismissed it the first night as it looked comparatively empty. Fortunately, we decided to try them out because we found that their food and pricing were much better than Tong Juan's. Hmmm, makes you suspicious of establishments with hyped-up websites, doesn't it?

Laksa, I'm immensely enjoying your food blog too...as I've enjoyed all the other blogs. You people are the greatest to share your week with us. For an original Msian (correct me if I'm wrong) who has seemingly spent more years abroad than home, your meals are very 'root-based'.

Oh, but Malaysians are highly creative when it comes to mooncakes. Check out the description in this price list. The jelly mooncake has been around for a few years already. I see a lot of my friends opting for this more refreshing 'mooncake'. Last year, I made a longan soya milk jelly mooncake with a balled peach "egg yolk". Considering the ingredients are much cheaper than real mooncake, it's selling for almost the same price.

According to a die-hard mooncake crazy friend of mine, Kam Lun Tai's mooncakes are the best...least sweet, cuts beautifully without sticking to your knife and has just the right texture. The green one should be pandan-flavored or.............SPIRULINA! I kid you not! I suppose some wise guy thought this was a good way of taking away the guilt of consuming all that sugar...by introducing some health food into it. Go figure! The non-cooked one is extremely easy to make. The ping pei can be flavored as you like, but I like to make it lightly rose-flavored and color it with a tinge of pink too. Here's the recipe. The reason why many people are into making mooncakes themselves these days, is the horror stories we've heard....one of them being...the filling which are left-over are kept till the next year. They (the mooncake shops) will just scrape off the moldy top layers when they use them the following year. Then imagine the kitchen conditions where these vats are stored (something which rhymes with vats should come into the picture ). Of course, the less scary reason would be the sugar level can be controlled by yourself.

Just came back from a trip to Trengganu. Will touch on a few stops we made. Now that the Gambang highway is opened, it halves the travelling time. Stopped at Yik Kee Restaurant at Karak for breakfast; had their regular egg tarts, Portugese egg tarts, siew pau and durian bombs (mashed durian enclosed in a deep-fried batter similar to wu kok or yam fritters). Good break. Bought their giant curry chicken bun, which measures 6 inches wide, and, zoong zi (RM6 per piece)for a quickie lunch when we arrive at Kijal. Discovered they have branches in Petaling Jaya and Gohtong Jaya under the name of Sri Karak. The way to tackle this baby is to break it into half, you'll get a bundle of foil-wrapped chicken curry with potatoes. Sandwich the curry into your bread...mmmm...really good to eat seated on a beach chair with a lovely sea breeze blowing. The zoong was no big deal...looked better than it tasted. Perhaps, it's not so fresh or needed refreshing with some steaming. To wash it down, we had some delicious coconut juice. One of these can yield 1 litre of thirst-quenching juice; we only get half of this from the coconuts we buy in KL at a higher cost. For dinner, we went to Chukai for their famous stuffed crabs. Someone recommended Restoran Tong Juan to us. At this point, hubby was getting mighty embarassed with his camera-happy wife and told me to abstain from clicking at the stuffed crab we got. After all, he said, they have a website ---> here. Well, other than their specialty, the other dishes were only so-so. The next day, we travelled 100 miles up to Kuala Trengganu (KT) to make up for the lackadaisical (sp?) seafood dinner we had at Tong Juan. My BIL had a relative in KT and he took us to Restoran Ipoh (what's Ipoh doing in KT?) at Jalan Kampung Cina. THIS is what we call Seafood! We had the freshest grouper fish ever. The highlight was the lala (clams), the size/freshness which we've never seen/tasted before...easily double the size of what we usually get at home. We also had Nestum prawns....deep-fried biiiiiiiig prawns smothered in toasted Nestum cereals with curry leaves. The serving was HUGE, a big mountain of it...but by the time I got to the camera, I had only one prawn model left. Here it is...in all its succulent glory. The meal cost us half the price of Tong Juan's and definitely satisfied the foodie in us.

Krista, I'm not sure if they sell it at the newstands, but I'll check this weekend. They'll probably cost just a little more. I don't mind sending you the mags. I think book post is quite cheap. I sent a thick-covered Debbie Brown book to a friend in California recently and I think the postage was RM20 plus. This mag should cost less than half of that. Oh, and via book post, it took only 6 days to reach.

I can't believe how this thread is building up; it's practically saturated with eye candies! But I think I'm greedy for MORE!!!!! Thank you, y'all!

Just adding the link here, as I had some trouble locating the object of our drooling desire.

Oh! Oh! Shiewie! You must get a pic of those!

I can certainly vouch for that! Guess which lucky gal got to sample it?

Shiewie, thanks for describing ju hu char...had to dash off just now to fetch the girls for their music class. Can you see I'm green with envy over your Melaka trip?

Pongteh is great comfort food for me. It's a stew of chicken/pork, potato and mushroom cooked in tau cheong (fermented bean curd sauce). Since it's non-spicy, it's also a hit with the kids. However, to merely call it a stew would take away the magic of the taste sensations and texture from this dish, cooked correctly. Don't think I can get the recipe from my friend; it's probably "agak-agak".

I missed this thread earlier, or I would have taken a pic. Last week, a friend with Malaccan roots, cooked a pot of ayam pongteh (which, incidentally, is my favorite nyonya dish, besides, ju hu char) for us. I haven't found another ayam pongteh which can rival his, even in restaurants. They are either too sweet or too dry. By the way, his dish has some pork in it...that must have been the secret ingredient! We ate it East Meet West style...with spaghetti, the pongteh being the sauce.

Coming from the same watering hole as Katie, I totally agree with what she has said. That Cake Board is a great place for cake-decorators!

Ever since I discovered it on a trip to Gold Coast, Australia, I always get friends who are coming home to get a couple of packets for me. Here you go, Buderim crystallised ginger. Oh, we can get crystallised ginger here as well, but not as fine as Buderim's. Love that stuff. And I steam the salmon first, then debone and flake them. Latest: I've run out of bread crumbs...made the patties already and put them in the freezer. Ah, I left out another ingredient....shallots fried to fragrant. And I added some thick coconut cream to my mash today. I think I'll cover them in finely crushed cornflakes before baking them tomorrow for a potluck dinner.

Grass jelly and no mention of Michael Jackson???!!! Almost everyone I know loves Michael Jackson - the drink, that is. It's basically soya bean milk with cubed grass jelly. Some genius created it and it sold very well in chinese coffee shops in M'sia. It's so famous now that Yeo Hiap Seng packages their soya milk together with their cincau, so you can have them at home. Great combo!

I'm just about to make some salmon fish cakes, with ingredients being potatoes, bread crumbs, crystallised ginger, kaffir lime leaves (a must!) very finely sliced, lemon juice, egg yolk, some sweet chilli sauce. After forming them into cakes, I either dip it into egg and roll in breadcrumbs or press thinly-sliced almonds all over. I prefer to bake them flipping them over after 10 minutes, rather than fry them. Don't like my food too oily.

Pan, I don't think it has any great effect on blood pressure, as it's said to give neutral energy. Looks like a fruit that's good to consume, any which way.

Qi Zi has a reputed ability to improve the vision. My 10-year old niece's classmate used to be very short-sighted for her age. The story goes that her mother let her take qi zi like snacks everyday. After 6 months, she did away with her glasses. My children loves them, in savoury soups, in sweet winter melon soups, and, even in salads. Edited to add: I just found this in my Chinese Herbal Secrets book...it also strengthens the liver and kidney, and can remedy impotence, weak back and knees. It generally nourishes the blood. However, over-consumption can lead to very loose, er hem, stools.

I don't know about the wires, Annie, but Ron Ben has a reputation of doing all his deco edible...so no wires. How about chocolate-colored gumpaste/pastillage?