Dried Bean Curd Soup with Mixed Vege

Dried bean curd sticks are popular in Asia - I think especially Chinese culture. I do not know of many recipe using dried bean curd, but I have one that I assure you will love. Dried bean curds comes from the layers that form during the process of heating soy milk. The layers are dried in various forms - commonly either layers, or sticks.

This is a vegetarian dish, very healthy and tastes good. I use some mixed vege and add some glass noodles to make it tasty without having to add much seasoning. So, this soup is very natural. No sugar or MSG. I got this from my mum and it's a Chinese dish which, I do not know what it is called.

:: Ingredients ::
2 sticks dried bean curd, cut to 2-inch lengths
A handfull of glass noodles
1 cup Wood Ear Mushrooms, cut into smaller pieces
2 stalk Leek, cut into 1-inch lengths
1 carrot, cut into thin 1-inch slices
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
5 cups water
salt to taste


1. Heat oil in a medium pot and fry onion and garlic until aromatic.
2. Add carrots and leeks, fry for 2 minutes.
3. Add water and bring to boil over medium heat. Now you add in the mushrooms, dried beancurd, and glass noodles. Stir a little and it should be done in about 10 minutes.
4. Add salt as your tastebuds prefer.

Serve hot with rice or by itself.

You may add Shiitake mushrooms to make it more tasty too.

Dried bean curds are normally sold at your local Asian grocers in packets, or if you visit the wet market, they should sell it either in packets or by kilograms. Either way, you can recognise it's light yellow colour with dried, crunchy texture.

Sambal Udang with Petai

Here it is... petai. You either love it or hate it. You either eat it totally or not at all. Petai - the mighty bright green coloured beans with a very peculiar smell. Westerners may be more familiar with the name "stinky beans" or "twisted cluster beans" as it really looks twisted, and to some - this bean stinks.

Photo courtesy of Asian Images

What I like best about it is it's small, cute shape of beans, with bright green colours and it is crunchy. Not peanut-crunchy but bean crunchy.

The best method of eating petai is to cook it with sambal. So here is my mum's recipe of a dish with prawns and petai.

Prawn sambal with petai

Ingredients
1 cup of petai beans
Some medium fresh prawns, cleaned and beheaded.
3 shallots, 2 garlic, 1 inch ginger (blended)
1 cup of blended fresh red chili (blended with some water)
1 stalk of lemongrass, crushed
2 tablespoon of tamarind juice
1/2 cup fresh coconut milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
oil for cooking

Cooking it is very simple. So if you think sambals are difficult and tedious to cook, try this one!

1. Preheat the saucepan with oil, and when it is hot pour the blended ingredients, fry for 3 minutes until aromatic. Add lemongrass and the coconut milk.
2. Add prawns and stir a little, then pour in the tamarind juice. Bring to boil.
3. Add the petai beans, stirring occassionally for 5-10 mins until prawn is cooked.
4. Add in sugar and salt to taste, and serve hot.

If the sambal is rather watery, you may leave it to thicken over small heat a while longer.

Sambal udang petai is best served with nasi lemak, nasi lemuni or with plain white rice.

:: Here is a funny story of petai... ::

A boy once asked me "Who do you think I look like..."
I said "You look like... (long pause)... belacan!"
He got pissed and instantly called me "Petai".

For years we've been calling each other "Petai" and "Belacan" - I don't know why we do that, just for fun... but I know that we irritate each other with these nicknames! In case you're wondering, NO WAY we dont smell anything like belacan and petai....

Now, we have somehow stopped calling each other this - because we ended up falling in love with each other! :-) It's been an amazing, wonderful 2 years, and many many more to come.

What a story behind all the stinky bean!

Jap Chae (Korean Glass Noodles)

Once upon a dinner in a nice… Cut! Boring start to a simple story.

8.p.m. and I am still stuck in my office with a ton of leftover work and the stupid entire system server hanging! So I rather not waste time and do something I like doing… writing about food!

I’ve once (yes, once only) tried the Jap Chae in a Arirang, a fancy Korean restaurant back in Perth. I loved it. I tried cooking it even though I couldn’t get the same taste. Well, put the fact that I was not referring to its recipe. I was merely guessing the possible ingredients that may have been put together, and just COOK. The “thing” – came out not too bad… perhaps not too Korean! ;-P

Was reading Steamy Kitchen’s steamy cooking blog and oh my yumm! – I saw that favourite Korean dish of mine! Even the picture made me salivate instantly… Drool drool drool… Ahoy Captain! We found the treasured dish so let’s get cookin’!

Jaden’s recipe was simple, I made the dish the very next day. Bought the clear noodles, and mushroom. Thankfully I have at home the rest of the ingredients (well, almost…). I had fun cooking this simple dish – very minimal preparation, and cooking time. I feel like I was cooking instant noodles instead!

After cooking it – it tastes good. May not taste the same as hers, as I forgot to get the sesame oil… so I used vege oil instead. And next time, I'll make sure I don't forget the spinach!

Here’s what I used for the ingredients.
1/2 pound Glass noodles
1/2 cup Dried wood ear mushrooms
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
6 Baby carrots, finely sliced
1/2 big green onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
3 Onion chives, chopped
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoon vege oil (sesame oil would be great!)
1 tablespoon Sesame seed for sprinkling

Cilantro (coriander) is my favourite herbs and I prefer this over scallions, actually - that is why you see me using it in this dish, even when I'm not supposed to... Perhaps next time, I will try the exact Jap Chae recipe to really call it the Korean glass noodles dish!

Long Beach Cafe, Penang

Deep fried spring rolls

Beef & Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Cheese Naan rolls with Dhal curry

If you have been to Batu Feringhi, you have probably dined in at the Long Beach Cafe, near the Golden Sands Hotel area. If you have been to Batu Feringhi but have not eaten here before, well shame on you, you have missed one of the best local Penang food experience!

Not to worry, I am here to share some of the food with you - thru my foodtography. These are just a few of the good food that you can taste in the Long Beach Cafe - from Chinese, Western, Italian pizza, Indian and more.

Fried Koey Teow - Mamak Style

Cafe is opened daily and dinner time can be really packed during weekends, so take your time and get a table, before you move around the place to decide what to order!

I most definitely go there one of these days as my sister will be back for a holiday in Penang, and hope that I can more foodtography to share with you!

Now before my brain fall asleep, eyeballs roll off the socket and fingers cramp, I better get some sleep now.

Nando's Chicken Kebab

Can we have 2 sets of the Tender Chicken Kebab with Two Side lines,

One with rice and Greek salad. Flavour would be Hot.
(Ooh I love their hot steamy rice with mix veges.... yumm!)

The other with Peri Corn and Greek salad. Flavour would be Lemon & Herbs.
Thank you.

Oh me drool - look at the shiny yellowy corn... yummm! And the juicy grilled kebabs with pineapples and capsicums... YUMMMM!

I always go after Greek Salad - fresh choice of greens and reds. I love colours in my food - the more colour the more cheerful the food looks!

When I want to eat healthy food outside, the most simplest and fastest I can think of, would be Nando's - the all famous Portuguese flavoured chicken with salads, rice, corn, chips, or coleslaw.

The waiter seems to memorize our menu already! Prove how we so often go there to chew on the Peri Peri Chickens...

This one was taken in Nando's Gurney Plaza, Penang for one of our dinner some time ago. Have not been there for sometime - the complex is underdoing a new major construction just right next to the strip of restaurants - bummer. With all that noise and dust - I'd be paying to eat cement and get deaf rather than taste the food!

My visits to Nando's has so far been pleasant. Now you can also just have your soft drinks refilled rather than per glass as it used to.

It is gonna be 1o'clock and though still early, I've had a long day at work and my eyes are screaming for me to take a nap. Gosh I hope what I am writing up here makes sense... I do confess I just wana share the pics up here with you!

:: Nando's chain of restaurant are spreading hot in more countries - tell me about the one close to you if you have been there! ::

Mee Goreng Mamak (Fried Indian Noodles)

This is a picture of my favourite mee goreng mamak. Yummy, freshly fried. Smells good. Tastes Great. "Mee goreng basah basah satu!" Now that is my standard standing order. It translates to "mee fried wet wet one". Ok ok, let me rephrase that in proper English - One fried mee with added gravy in".

This one is located in the Kopitiam just beside of the Pulau Tikus wet market (Opposite Pulau Tikus Police Station). Penang being famous for many street food - there is no surprise there are plenty of good Mamak Mees around!

You can easily recognise the coffee shop - by the wall of fame of the owner's sports article clips and medals won by his famous Malaysian bowler son, Adrian Ang.

Not only the mee goreng is tasty, you have to try the zesty lime juice. So refreshingly cool and a great pick-me-up!

Now here are the ingredients to that perfect mee goreng... in a picture. I am no chef to this dish! The noodles are stir fried with some bean sprouts, squid, chili, dark soy sauce, egg, cubed bean curd and cubed prawn fritters.

I love the colourful ingredients here! Some prefer koey teow, maggi or bihun too. Mee rebus (noodles in gravy) is another local favourite.

And here is the chef whom I gladly thank for my delicious mee goreng always! Mee goreng price? RM3.00 only. You can request for added squid or gravy. I think this kopitiam is opened for business daily.

In about the same area, you may like to try the infamous Bangkok Lane mee!

:: What's your favourite mee and where?? ::

TGI Friday's, Queensbay Mall

Fridays are always excellent. Especially when you are on leave today. Was shopping around by me self in Queensbay and my guy called me. "Do you want to meet up and have dinner at TGIF?" and obviously my answer is "Yes"! Anything just to blog about food lah! Whoopssss I mean, anything just to SEE him!

Now waaay before he called me - I was around shopping for a dinner purse and earrings for my annual dinner next weekend. Then I went around in search for a birthday present for him.... I knew what to get - just had to go check out from a few shops!

So I got him a point and shoot camera - for simple daily use that he can just slip that thing in his jeans while his DSLR hangs from his neck like a big bulky bling bling. So, when he called to meet me here - GREAT! Off we went to TGIF, with the present secretly lying safely in my bag...

As I was rather excited to give him his new toy, I could'nt be bothered to browse thru the menu - tho it looked exciting. What captured my attention was the set meals for RM39 - good enough to enjoy good meal without blowing our pockets! So I let him do the ordering, which, after that I took out and gave him his new toy!

For starters I had the Buffalo wings. It was tender and juicy. Yummy. What more can I say! Guy just had dinner so, thankfully, my buffalo wings are safe and sound - all for me!

Then I had the grilled chicken over some rice and cheese. I love the tasty grilled flavour in the chicken meat and that they had some capsicums underneath it. The cheese was brilliant but, as I was a slow eater.... it got hard half way thru my dinner. Had to leave that portion out!

My guy had the burger - succulent delicious beef patty with layers of lettuce, onions and tomatoes. Darn it looks good! He commented that the bread, however is not as good. Perhaps too dry.

Dessert for me was the crunchy mocha ice cream with choc fudge. Simply fabulously fantastic! Well, in my personal opinion.

Service was great here with their bubbly friendly staffs. Food was good and ambience? Felt like it was overseas - the restaurant deco resembles what's being done in the USA. I think it's worth the price being paid for!

:: My guy loved his new toy and didn't expect me to get it for him - cos I was reluctant to get it in the first place! Ah well, surprises surprises... ::

See my other post for more good food @ TGIF.

The person behind Foodilicious

Hi, I'm Mas, born and raised in Penang, Malaysia - the island known as The Pearl Of The Orient. A relatively small island but rich in culture, heritage and FOOD. Penang is a world heritage site and one of the best places in Asia that you can enjoy delicious Asian cuisine of various ethnic such as Indian, Chinese, Nyonya, Malay, and others.

Passion for Food
My love for food begin while I had to cook on my own while studying overseas. I begin to experience cooking my much missed mum's home cooking, favourite food, trial and error on ingredients while creating my own recipes. I learn to enjoy and love cooking. Now that I'm back home, I learn a lot from my mum, who cooks Malay, Chinese, Western and Indian flavors. Plus, I have my sassy sis who comes up with a variety of new age recipes.

Photography
I use Nikon D80 paired with Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens (and other lens, depending on my mood) for taking most of my food pictures.

Favourite Quote
“I have the simplest tastes. I am only satisfied with the best”.
An inspiration from Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet. Which tells you just the type of person that I am!

Contents of this Blog
Foodilicious Malaysia is all about my personal journey with food and travel, mostly revolves around home cooking and dining out.

The contents, including photography are copyrighted, please do not use without permission or linking back to its original post.


Press
Best Food Junction, March 2009

Contact Me
I am currently based in Penang, Malaysia.
E-mail: myfoodilicious@gmail.com

Last Updated: 14 January, 2010

Curried Chicken Rolls

Brother's birthday was past a few days back and so I wanted to give him a treat. So I made some chicken rolls and beef lasagna. (Why I didn't just eat out? Ok. Because MUM's birthday is next week! - You know what that means! ;-P )

Beef lasagna

Since my sis "dumped" her two naughty little boys in my parent's house (where I live too) for the school holidays I thought I'd also let them enjoy more home cooking! Thankfully, the kids didn't burn down my mum's kitchen so I was able to cook. This is something simple, and everyone enjoyed it. Just wish my sis and bro in law was here too.

Sis in law made some orange longan juice for us. Yummy..... I was looking for strawberry jelly mixture but could not get any - otherwise I'd make the jelly pudding dessert which everyone loves.

Curry Chicken Rolls

This is a recipe from Chicken Perfection - a simple, delicious step by step recipe book bought some time ago. Being stubborn me, I always never follow recipe or try to add stuffs in. (So far so good for me). So the ingredients in here is "modified" by myself.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 medium green onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chicken curry powder
2 tablespoon lemon juice
500g minced chicken
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
3 tablespoon breadcrumbs (I used 2 plain crackers)
Salt & pepper to taste
2 sheets frozen puff pastry (I did my own)
Milk for glazing
Sesame seeds for sprinkling

Now, you're gonna need just a small little frying pan to cook a few of the ingredients. Meanwhile, preheat the oven over medium heat - about 190 degrees C.

In a bowl, combine together the chicken, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, coriander. Mix well. Put aside while you move over to the stove section.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan. Add onion and garlic and fry till soften. Add curry powder and stir a little, then pour in lemon juice and mix. Tun the heat off. Now bring this aromatic mixture to the bowl and mix them. (No no no not eating them RAW!)

:: Now this is the fun part for me ::
I had to roll out the pastry dough to make them into sheets... If you have a ready made one - awsome. Just lay them flat - pile on some of the chicken mixture and roll them up. Cut the chicken rolls to 4-5 equal pieces and glaze the top with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat same steps for the remaining pastry and meat.

Into the oven they go now, for about 20 mins or more (depending on pastry thickness) until golden brown.

Note: I was extremely generous with the sesame seeds because I love sesame seeds. Black seeds would look great on the rolls too. Serve with Mild curry sauce or Thai sweet chilli sauce.

After lunch - we were stuffed and the dishes were GONE. My nephews, in particular enjoyed the chic rolls and said I am a good cook. I'm so happy they loved it!

Amandari - Authentic Malay Cuisine

While almost everybody in Malaysia is out of the office either celebrating Diwali, visiting their Indian friends or just having a nice public holiday, a small minority of people like me is at the office. With business as usual. It is usually quiet...

This day however, I have two special colleagues from Thailand, and, of course the best way to treat your foreign friends is to introduce them to our local Malaysian food! So, we had a small treat for them at Amandari, Pulau Tikus, Penang - for a Malay food experience.

Aman means peace. Dari simply means "from". In Indonesian, Amandari means peaceful spirits. True to its name, the place is an old bungalow house, renovated with some wooden structure and staircase that remind me of nice, beautiful old Penang bungalows. The deco is soft, with light-coloured fabric blinds against the glass windows and white walls. Waitresses dress up in a songket Malay shirt and long skirts. You are greeted from the moment you walk in, till you leave the place.

Now let's eat! :-) What's in the menu here... One thing's for sure - we are having steamed jasmine rice! No rice - not very Malaysian-lah! Rice is afterall our staple food...

Honestly, I don't know where to start ordering. The selection of food from the menu is huge. From soups to curries to stir fries to deep fried to steamed - all! And they have it all - what ever food and flavour you want (that makes it even harder to order cos everything sounds delicious!). Thankfully, they have lunch sets for us. So we chose the lunch set and let the chef give us his best.

We had stir fried kailan, deep fried fish in dark soy sauce sauce - which was rich in fried garlic and coriander flavour, crispy fried chicken, fried big prawns in tomato sauce, stir fried squid in red curry, deep fried pandan chicken, and mix vege soup. Not forgetting the ulam(raw fresh malay vege mix), served with sambal.

Among all our orders, I liked the stir fried squid curry and the pandan chicken the best! It just blows my taste buds away. And the freshness of the squid that I ate here - very good. I wouldn't like if it makes me feel like eating rubber. My previous time here - I had the seafood tomyum which is also good.

Deep fried fish in dark soy sauce, with fried garlic & coriander

I'd say the food here is good. The place here incorporates traditional food and fine dining concept.This is truly a clean, lovely restaurant where you just sit, relax, and enjoy your food! If you have trouble deciding what to order - not to worry - the waitress will gladly recommend you the best and favourite menus.

Fried prawns in tomato sauce.

Place is centrally located in the heart of Penang. Food tastes good. Service is good, friendly staffs. Nice warm ambience. My last words? RECOMMENDED.

:: Amandari ::
Malay Cuisine
67, Jalan Kelawei, 10350 Penang.
Tel : +604-2285541

Stir fried squid in curry paste, with onions and chilis

Malay food are well known for being very spicy (all the fresh hot chillis and dried chillis...) but not all of them. Not to worry, you can inform them how spicy you'd like the food to be, or if you do not want chilli at all. This way, you will enjoy Malay food 100%!

Sago Pearls with Sweet Potato

Here is another one of Sago's complimentary friend: the sweet, sweet potato. Being a truly Malaysian best-loved dessert, Sago goes well on its own like the all-time favourite Sago Gula Melaka or added in Bubur Kacang or Sago Pudding.

Fresh sweet potatoes

For today I'll share with you my mum's sago dessert, with sweet potato. I bought some sago, and told my mum I wanted to eat them. The next day, she bought some sweet potatoes from the fresh market. Then comes the santan. We have pandan growing in our garden, and use it on many of our cookings and for Malaysian dessert - almost always a must have ingredients.

:: Recipe ::
2 Sweet potato
100 gm sago pearls ( dried, white colour sold in packs)
1 cup fresh coconut milk
1 Pandan leaf
Brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Here's how it's cooked:
Skin the potatoes and cube them, wash to remove dirt and boil them in about half a pot of water. (We use medium pot). Add in pandan leave and pinch of salt.
After potatoes are lightly soften add in the sago pearls and cook till the sago's colour turn clear (you will not see any white spots in the sago - then you know it is cooked).
Stir in the sugar and coconut milk, and dessert is ready!

You may more or less adjust the sugar, sago and the coconut milk portions as how your taste buds prefer them. I personally like it light on the coconut milk. I always love sago and don't mind MORE sago in the pot! Some people do not prefer too much sago. Best of all - this dessert tastes good WARM or COLD.


Always a favourite.... Yummmm.....

Nasi Lemuni Hitam (Lemuni Rice)

Ok, some of you may say this dish - looks odd or weird or whatever... but it is an authentic Malaysian dish and I'd love to share it with y'all.

Me brains not functioning correctly at this wee hour of the morning. Heck - I have to work tomorrow... It's Monday!!!

Guess what this dish is! and I'll tell you about it soon! :-)

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

9th Nov, 12:00p.m.

Lemuni - a Malay herbal plant with small purple flowers and dark greenish grey leaves. Commonly used in traditional preparation, usually from extracting the juice. In Malay culture, it is very popularly used in as remedial medicine, most popularly believed is good for women who just gave birth. We grow the tree in our house, and the flowers are very pretty.

This is a Malay recipe which I don't normally see being sold in restaurants - maybe very few... My mum learn this from a Malay neighbour and I tell you - it is very delicious! Cooked in rice - we call it nasi lemuni and side dishes comprise of the common nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) dishes such as boiled egg, sambal, rendang, or ikan bilis (fried anchovies).

I like to eat flavoured rice - and lemuni is one of it! The leaves, with some water is blended and strained and added in rice to cook. Some santan (coconut milk) is added in, and also chopped garlics, fresh ginger, shallots and pandan leave to enhance the taste and smell. It doesn't really matter how much of the juice is used in the rice, as long as the portions of rice, water, lemuni and coconut milk is adequate - the rice will turn out yummy. You can see the colour of the rice (like in my foodtography)... :-)

It's like eating nasi lemak, really. So even simple side dished like fried omelette, salty fish and cucumber slices makes nasi lemuni tastes good...

Kenny Rogers' Roasters, QBM Penang

Muffins. Macaroni & Cheese. Roasted Chicken. Mashed Potatoes & gravy. Salad.

All in one place. All in one meal. The menu is good. And portion is just nice. I like the fact that I can just choose what I want and order it - you know ... their many many interesting side dishes...

I ordered cappuccino - after a while being in the freaking freezing mall, drinking something warm is definitely better than cold soft drinks! The cappuccino is not bad actually. Goes well with the muffin.

For the roasted chicken, I like the black pepper one. Yumm... Side dish is always mashed potato, mac n' cheese, and cold pasta salad. Sounds like a well balanced meal to me!

This is Kenny Rogers' outlet in QueensBay Mall, Penang. Nice place, very good ambience and I love the decor in the restaurant. Here, the service and food quality is good.

I wonder, though, why Kenny Rogers in Bukit Jambul Complex and Midlands closed off way back. I really hope they maintain this one and not close shop.

Happy eating out again....

Kapitan's Nasi Kandar International

The first time I ate here I ordered Chicken Briyani. And I loved it very much. I want so much to try others on its delicious list of menus but I always end up ordering the briyani. Oh soo yummy... You have to try it. Once, at least! Here's an introduction to Kapitan's. My favourite nasi kandar restaurant.

There are about 3 Kapitan's in Penang, but I have only been to the one situated at Gurney Tower, right beside Starbucks. Cool place - just a walk away from Gurney Drive, nice environment and you can sit for hours. Good service and very reasonable price. And clean. I come here often with my colleagues for lunch and all of us love it.

I have written some about Kapitan's here, and since I just went there again earlier today, here I am again. But it is worth telling y'all about it! My sis and brother in law just came from KL and were desperate (oopsie! I meant sooooo desparate) to eat lunch at Kapitan's. They claimed a friend of theirs would come all the way to Penang just to eat at Kapitan's - So, the food here is that good until people would drive all the way! (I on the other hand love some of KL's food....which you cannot get in Penang) ;-P

I had the Chicken Tandoori with Garlic Naan. I just love the soft naan and the very tender chicken tandoori. All served with chicken curry, mint chutney, chili, lemon, and fresh onion rings. The naan comes in a few flavour, my favourite being garlic, butter or simply plain naan. Either one, they always make great rotis.
Sis and hubby ordered the Chicken Briyani. It was as good as always. The portion is big (for Malaysians, I think) and very filling. The rice is very yummy with cashews, raisins and you can really taste the b-r-i-y-a-n-i-ness! The chunks of marinated chicken is also tender. It's marinated overnite, and grilled to order, to enhance the tastiness. Served with a side dish of their famous chicken curry and raita. This briyani rice-chicken-curry-raita is such a wonderful combination!

They have a wonderful menu of northern and some southern Indian cuisine. They also have nasi kandar which you can just walk to the "buffet" stand and order what you want, from squid to fish curries, egg dishes, fried veges and many more. Breads (naan, thosai, capati, etc) are made to order. Other made to order dish - local style fried mee, fried rice, and maggi.

And my favourite drink there? Sweet lassi. Cheers!

:: Kapitan's Nasi Kandar International ::
Gurney Tower, Penang
Opens daily for breakfast, lunch & dinner
Tel : +604-8182811

Sis and hubby went back to KL with a happy grin on their faces, after enjoying yummy meal at Kapitan's. Me? I was stuffed too, but I never get bored of the food here! :-)