yunnermeier

I would love to try Hajime and would probably do so with my girlfriends in May but my partner despises Japanese food:(

Thanks for the quick reply, Julian. What would your 2nd choice be? Would be nice if the meal is RM200 or less per person but don't mind spending up to RM300 per person. If I can't find anything better,we will just go to Frangipani , Cochine, Lafite,Oggi or that Le Buchon place everyone is talking about;) Decisions decisions... Lafite looks very expensive and I can't see to find a price indication online. We once had the most delightful meal at this lovely place called Entre Parentheses (incidently Chef Wan was sitting at the next table) but it closed down almost immediately. There was only one chef (the owner+waiter ) who was trained in Belgium and Paris. It wasn't exactly fine,fine dining but he used good quality ingredients and the price was very reasonable (somewhere in the RM60 range for a set meal with 3 courses).

When is Cilantro re-opening? Micasa is under renovation until mid-2009 but would Cilantro be operational before that? I would like to go at the end of this month or possibly in mid May. If it's closed, any other suggestions?

Steamed cod served with baby kai lan and rice.

I would definitely consider a food processor and will also buy a normal size mortar and pestle. I'm going back to Malaysia later this month and if it's not too heavy, I also want to bring back another kind of grinder (large rectangular block of granite and a large cushion-size sausage shaped piece of granite). Nyonyas are anal about using food processors (which James Oseland also mentioned) so I know my mother will scoff at me and say "that's not Nyonya food bah" but I don't have 5 hours a day to spare simply for cooking! The house still stinks from the fried chicken and because we have an open kitchen, I'm terrified the couch has absorbed the smell:/

If you don't mind, how much did the sumo tickets cost? I went to a sumo tournament in Nagoya and had good seats but it was a present from an exchange student's host family. We were told by some English teachers that sumo tickets are incredibly expensive (a few man). Is this true? p/s: Scud is indeed cute:-D

Got the book yesterday and made Inche Kabin (My family is Nyonya but have never made this because they don't really like fried chicken) for dinner today. Tasty but lots of work. I don't have a food processor so I did everything by hand (using a tiny mortar and pestle) . I bought free range chicken today but will probably just buy supermarket chicken next time as the price difference is huge (today's chicken cost me over 14 euro, a whole chicken is only 4+ euro at the supermarket) . The Inche Kabin was served with the Nyonya dipping sauce and what I think is baby pak choy (label said Chin Sang P.K. ) stirfried with garlic.

I ordered this book off Amazon today and can't wait to try the recipes!

I'm still waiting for my book. Noticed that it's selling for $26.40 on Amazon and I bought it from a cheap Dutch website for 34 euro and it's still not here! I can't wait to start baking!

I followed the Fine Cooking recipe and I love it! It's very lemony with just the right amount of sweetness. Lovely colour and it wasn't runny at all.

Thanks. I was looking for a Malaysian Banana cake recipe not kueh In the end, I use a recipe from my mother's recipe book and whilst it yielded a very nice rustic banana cake, it's not THE banana cake I wanted. I think I may have been mistaken because I would think there is no way a cake with fruits can be as fluffy as the one I love . The cake I like could possibly not be banana cake at all but a pound cake flavoured with banana essence? Either that or I should've mashed my banana even more finely! I'm going to try the pound cake with banana essence next. If you're interested, here's the banana cake recipe I used. It's moist and goes great with cream cheese frosting. Ma's Banana Cake 8oz butter 8oz sugar 10.5oz self-rising flour sifted with 3/4 tsps of baking soda (I used baking powder and it rised fine) 5 eggs 1.3 cup mashed ripe bananas (this should be about 3-4 large bananas) 4tbs orange juice i) Cream butter and sugar until light. Add egg yolks one at a time and continue beating. ii) Add the mashed bananas and beat well. iii) Fold in the egg whites which have been beaten to a stiff froth.(good luck doing this if you are making the cake without the aid of a mixer . my hand's aching like crazy) iv) Fold in flour and add orange juice. v) Bake in greased pan for about an hour at 150 degrees celscious ( mine took almost 1.5 hours to bake but this could be because of the oven I used). This is what happens when you slice it with a blunt butter knife...

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Asian. Mostly Chinese, Nyonya, Indian and Malay. Of course there was McDonalds and KFC as well;) Was meal time important? Somewhat. We ate out during the weekend and spend quite some time doing that but on weekdays, everyone usually ate separately (home from work/school different times etc) Was cooking important? Again, somewhat. My mother is a good cook. My paternal aunts were also very passionate about cooking local food. That said, we also ate out often as food is both tasty and cheap in Malaysia. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? None. Sticking chopsticks into a bowl of rice however is another story... Who cooked in the family? Mum and aunts (close family, we'd meet 3 times a week) Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? Common. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? Yes. Same food but the kids sat together on another table. When did you get that first sip of wine? Maybe 16 Was there a pre-meal prayer? No Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? No. But whenever I said I liked something, my mother would make it twice a week which made me hate that particular dish;) How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? I don't have a family but my partner whom I live with says I'm obsessed with food (typical for Malaysians) and I notice that I show how much I care with food.

I love Malaysian banana cakes- it's fluffy, moist and incredibly flavourful. I understand pisang emas is used. I'm not sure what kind of banana is sold here but it's definitely not pisang emas. The bananas here are larger with rather thick skins. I'll go to the Asian shop this weekend to see if I can get pisang emas. Does anyone have an amazing recipe? My idea of a perfect banana cake does not contain chocolate chips or anything else..just banana! It doesn't have a thick crust, moist , fluffy and the crumb is very fine... This stall in SS2's pasar malam (Mondays) used to sell them and I miss it very much...

I have been lusting after this book eversince it came out but could never justify buying it (only have hot-air oven ) . After resisting for so long, I finally succumbed and bought a copy yesterday. It should arrive in 5-7 working days. I can't wait to try out everything:)

Sour Cream and Cardamon cake

Stampot (potatoes mashed with curly kale and bacon bits) with rookworst (smoked sausage)

I made Ah Leung's butter chicken stir fry (very good. Thanks for the recipe!) yesterday and bought my first bottle of Shao Hsing wine. There were 2 bottles to pick from- both from the same brand (this is also what Ah Leung uses) . One is Taiwanese Shao Hsing wine and cost 2.5 times more than the normal one. Does anyone know what the difference is? Thanks.

Kung Pow chicken with Pak Soi

Wow, great piactures Nakji! You can actually see tako in the takoyaki! (I only got little bits of octopus in my takoyaki- never ever as much as that!) And that picture with the egg on top makes me hungry. I wish I could go back to Japan.

Tonight's unhealthy dinner...

This is Chufi's hachee recipe I like my mash buttery so lots of butter and cream (milk makes it too watery for my taste). Traditionally, Dutch people also use nutmeg but I didn't have any. For the braised red cabbage with apples (enough for 3-4 people): 1 Granny Smith (chopped in small chunks) 1 large red cabbage (finely sliced) 1 onion (chopped) large knob of butter half cup orange juice 2 bay leaves 2 cloves 1 cinnamon stick approx. 2tbs brown sugar When butter has melted, fry the onions until fragrant and soft. Add everything else except for the apples (some people like the apples soft so they put it with the onions but I like my apples crispy so I leave that to the end). Cover the pot and braise for around 25 minutes. Add the chopped apple chunks and braise for another 5 minutes or so. Edited to add that I'm usually too lazy to do that by myself so I just buy jars or packets of the braised cabbage from the supermarket. Also, there are many ways to braise cabbage. Some people like to braise red cabbage with wine, others with anise seeds or with raisins...

Beautiful. I think this dish is called Itik Tim

Typical Dutch homey meal. Hachee, mash, red cabbage with apples . The Dutchman was so happy (as was I. Very comforting)

I started cooking quite late. I did help my mum bake cookies and cakes and also baked some by myself but was never really interested in meals. I went to Japan and I had 6 host families over a period of 1 year and I wanted to give them a taste of Malaysian food. It went well (except for the 'roti jala' but that's another story ) and I forgot all about it. Then I came to The Netherlands as an au pair and I loved my host family's kitchen. It made cooking seem like a lifestyle and it made me want to make beautiful meals ! I cooked maybe once a week and baked occassionally. Now I live with my partner and I cook everyday. This may sound stupid but nothing makes me happier than thinking what I'm going to have for dinner tonight. I spend all my spare minutes thinking about food!

I don't really plan my meals. I go to the grocery store to see what's available, what I feel like eating tonight (I live very close by 4 supermarkets so I have the 'luxury' of shopping everyday or walking over if I'm missing something), what's on sale that day , what's in season . I do plan sometimes if I want to make something special but there is indeed a lot of wastage!