The other day I went to get my car wrapped for an advertisement which they would pay for the service. It's a 3 month campaign and I needed to drive to the location about 30km away from where I live.
After the wrapping was done which was lunchtime, I went by a roadside 'warung' to get some lunch. The area wasn't a place I'm familiar with so I just went anywhere that was convenient. There wasn't anyone else eating at the place but the food spread looked delicious.
They even had a charcoal grill cooking up some chicken which I'm assuming all their other grilled dishes were using that charcoal grill.
I got their white rice with 'Ayam percik' a northern grilled chicken dish cooked in a coconut spiced gravy. I also got their grilled beef cooked with coconut and spices as well but on the dryer side and not saucy.
The meal was so delicious! The chicken had a smokey aroma from the charcoal grill it was grilled on and the sauce was slightly sweet and spicy but savory and full of spices and aroma from the coconut. It was such a brilliant dish which I haven't had this type of 'Ayam percik' in a long time.
The beef was also so good. It was tender and had a smokey aroma to it as well. I really loved both dishes and could've eaten another bowl of rice with them.
I ordered a cup of iced milk tea which I haven't had in probably some years now. I have palpitations drinking caffeine but this was quite mild and perfect on a hot and sunny day.
After I started eating I then saw more customers coming to the place to eat and takeaway. One of them being an ex-national badminton player which I was really surprised to see as you can't get any more random than that day being that I never travel to that area in town.
Amazing lunch and one that I'll remember. Yums! ~~
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Mushroom Duxelle is something we make at the cafe. It's for one of the sandwiches which we use the Duxelle as a spread on the bread before the other ingredients are added to make the sandwich.
Here's how you make mushroom Duxelle:
Use whatever fresh mushrooms you like. At the cafe we use 3 types of mushrooms - white button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms.
The oyster mushrooms are shredded by hand roughly and the button mushrooms are cut into quarters. The enoki stems at the bottom that has dirt are removed and all the mushrooms are ready to be roasted.
The mushrooms are mixed with minced garlic and oil then it's popped into a 180 degree oven for 5 minutes. If they aren't browned enough, add another 5 minutes and roast them longer.
Once they are browned and fragrant, remove them and blitz them in a food processor until they are finely minced.
Next comes the cooking. They are added into a pot with oil and Sautéed until they are browned and darken further. A wide shallow pan/pot would be better for this and will take lesser time to cook than a deep pot.
Once they are browned, add in milk and butter and cook for another 10 minutes.
It shouldn't be too watery and needs to be spreadable. If its too watery, just cook it longer.
The end result is an earthy and creamy spread that you can use on bread or season some meat or pimp up your eggs for breakfast. Super delicious but not without much labor of love put into it's preparation.
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Another day another cuisine to cook and savor. This time I cooked a Thai dish called - Pandan Fried Chicken.
I improvised a little by baking the chicken instead of deep frying since it doesn't use as much oil and much lesser mess to clean up after.
All you need to make this dish is chicken, garlic, white pepper, black pepper (optional), oyster sauce, pandan leaves.
I first start with marinating the chicken with freshly ground white pepper and black pepper as well as garlic paste which you can use a blender or pestle and mortar to pound it into a paste. I also added some mayo to this for the oil aspect to the marinade but you could use regular cooking oil. Some oyster sauce goes in next and then mix and massage the marinade into the chicken and let it sit for 20 minutes or overnight if you prepare beforehand.
Next, wrap the chicken with the pandan leaves but for me, I didn't have enough pandan for the amount of chicken I had so I made a bed of pandan leaves then sandwiched the chicken in between another layer of pandan leaves.
I then put it into a 180 degree Celsius oven for 30-35 minutes until they are golden brown. You could add another 5 minutes at 250 degree Celsius to really brown the chicken.
I also made another dish that was Thai inspired. I stir fried carrots, long beans, and onions with fish sauce, chilies, kaffir lime leaves, and calamansi (or lime) juice and the whole thing goes into the dish as well. Stir fry for about 5-7 minutes and season to taste and the dish is done.
Both dishes turned our superb and tasted like what it supposed to taste like. The chicken was tender and juicy in the inside and the flavors from the pepper were to aromatic and fragrant.
The vegetable dish was tangy, spicy and so appetising just like how Thai dishes are. Super delicious and definitely something I will cook again in the future.
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One of my colleagues bought some pork shoulder the other day which I used them to cook one of my comfort dishes - pork shoulder with salted fish and ginger.
Its a Chinese dish that is really delicious and also a dish that my Mum cooks. This dish is normally made with pork belly and salted fish but I improvised with the ingredients I had and used pork shoulder instead of belly and anchovies instead of salted fish.
The shoulder had some fat on it which is similar to pork belly and the anchovies were very salty but not as fishy in aroma compared to salted fish which gave it a milder aroma which I think more people would enjoy.
For my pork marinade, I use soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and corn flour. The corn flour will help to thicken the sauce later. Mix them all together and let it sit 30 minutes to overnight, however much time you have in hand.
I start off my sautéing some ginger slices until they are slightly browned and they are fragrant. Salted fish would go in next but since anchovies are a different texture and are already soft, I added in the pork shoulder to brown. After they are browned, add in the anchovies and then some water and let everything simmer for a good 30-40 minutes.
I also cooked a simple vegetable dish. I stir fried cabbage and carrots with some turmeric powder and chicken stock powder. Add in some water after sautéing for a couple of minute and let it simmer for another 2 minutes and the dish is done. Simple, inexpensive and extremely friendly to the pocket.
A super delicious lunch that only takes a few ingredients and less than 30 minutes to prep.
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After eating rice dishes for our lunches at the cafe, I decided to switch it up by cooking some wantan noodles for lunch. I went shopping at the supermarket located above our cafe and saw they had these ready made wantan egg noodles on sale.
I got a couple of packets and made a simple dry noodle dish with some sweet Chinese barbecue sauce chicken (Char Siew). I used a premix sauce for the sweet sauce but for the noodles I made a simple sauce using soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and garlic oil.
After boiling in a pot some water, I steeped the noodles for about 1 minute in the boiling water then rinsed it in cold water to remove the starch and then back into the hot boiling water for 2 seconds and then it goes into the bowl with the sauce I made.
Mix it all together and the noodles are done. Garnish with some spring onions and it's ready to be served.
For the 'char siew' Chicken, I simply marinated the chickcen with the sweet sauce and then roasted it in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 6-7 minutes. I used chicken tenders so it took this amount of time but if use chicken thighs or bone-in chicken, it'll take double the time.
I also deep fried some prawn rolls that were prawns wrapped in beancurd skin (taukan) and ate it with the noodles.
The noodles were Springy in texture and was so flavorful with the dark sweet and savory sauce I made. The garlic oil made all the difference giving it maximum aroma and flavor. A super delicious dish that's easy to prepare and cook. Yums! ~~
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After church on Sunday, me and my friends went for lunch to a nearby mall. My wife and younger son was down with covid so they didn't follow us and my eldest son was with me. We went to a 'kopitiam' that serves various local noodle and rice dishes.
I ordered for him 'Nasi Lemak' with fried chicken which he really enjoyed and finished the whole plate of food. The rice was a heapful and he mamsged to finish that and the whole chicken drumstick. I was really impressed and happy he liked the meal so much.
For myself, I didn't feel like eating local food so I went to a nearby Taiwanese food stall and got my lunch.
I ordered myself oyster 'meesuah' which noodles with oyster in a starch broth with chicken slices and chili paste on the side. I love this dish a lot and got myself some of their famous deep fried bone-in chicken breast.
The serving in this is huge and I really was stuffed for lunch with a bowl of the oyster noodles and a whole chicken breast. The price is getting more and more expensive but we'll worth in my opinion for the taste and portion still.
A super delicious meal that I treated myself after a brutal week of a colleague down with covid and my own family having covid. It was such a tiring week of work and helping out at home which now writing this I'm glad it's all over 🙌
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It was my turn to cook lunch for the staff. I cooked something my wife cooks at home every now and then - 'hai di lao' soup.
She normally adds in frozen food like seafood tofu, fishballs, meatballs, as well as fresh meat like shabu-shabu sliced pork belly.
I took inspiration from that and using the same soup/stock base from the 'hai di lao' brand, I made some soup with seafood tofu and chicken meatballs. I also added in some roughly chopped up cabbage which gives the soup a little more natural sweetness which makes it that more delicious.
Its a very simple dish to make as all you need to do is add the seasoning powder into a pot and add in water, bring it to a boil and add in whatever ingredients you like.
We ate this with white rice. I'm gonna try to have this with noodles the next time I cook this broth and make a ramen-type of dish. I think it'll turn out really nice as well.
The soup is such a good dish to make especially on cold and rainy days. A comforting and warming dish to feed the body and most importantly, yummy! ~~
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It was my Filipino colleague's turn to cook staff meal and he cooked what is the best lunch I've ever eaten that he cooked. He cooked 3 dishes and it was really some of the best Filipino food I've eaten so far.
He cooked pork 'Sisig' a popular Filipino dish that's super delicious. It's my first time eating it and man was it a treat!
He first marinated with soy sauce and roasted the pork face in an oven. Then stir fried it with liver. After that it's removed and cooled then mixed with mayonnaise and chili that's been sliced up. It's super creamy from the mayo and earthy from the liver, savory from the Roasted pork. Such an amazing combination and absolutely delicious.
He also cooked a beef stew with black peppercorns, chilies and seasoned with soy sauce.
Another dish he cooked was ladies fingers stir fried with salt and dried red chilies. It turned out fragrant and slightly spicy. Very yummy as well.
Such an amazing lunch that took a lot of effort which I'm so privileged and grateful to be able to eat such delicious Filipino cuisine.
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For our staff meals at the cafe, we get to cook different cuisines and explore different food cultures. Since we pick what to cook, it's a wonderful experience that we get to experiment and try new types of food every other week.
It was my colleagues turn to cook and he picked Japanese cuisine. He cooked some
Japanese curry with beef mince and carrots. The curry was a premix that we were trying out and it turned out delicious.
The curry was thick and creamy and full of very string beefy flavors. It paired really well with rice which we ate the curry with.
He also cooked some deep fried chive dumplings. He bought some frozen dumplings which are cook-ready and simply deep fried them in a 170 degree Celsius deep fryer with palm oil. It turned out golden brown and crispy on the outside and the chives inside were perfectly tender and cooked.
A simple meal and a little taste of Japanese food at where we work. Yums ~~
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A friend of mine recently opened up a Pizzeria that serves woodfire oven pizzas. He even built the brick oven by himself and single-handedly built the restaurant from the ground up including water piping and electrical wiring. It's been an exceptional work especially since he's got not prior experience in F&B nor construction work and still manage to pull it off and setup this place.
This woodfire oven pizza is called Dante Carlos and located at an unassuming lot in Kepong.
We ordered 3 of their pizzas - Babi Dalam Hutan, Beef Mania, and the most unique one of them, Jack & Chic which is Jackfruit with chicken.
I know, it sounds like it wouldn't work but it was not only unique but tasted really good. It had the complex sweetness of the jackfruit that's roasted in the woodfire oven paired with chicken, the fragrance from the hot and toasted pizza dough was such a brilliant pairing.
We also tried the DaVinci Pie which was quite nice too. The mushroom soup made with fresh mushrooms was very nice and had a strong garlic taste to it.
A simple looking Pizzeria that's cozy and a chill place to hangout friends over warm and toasty woodfire oven roasted pizza.
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Last month my parents invited me and my brother and our families over to their house. My Mum was cooking some fish head curry which we all enjoy. The fish has been in her freezer for some time now and she has been wanting to cook it but I got covid so things were delayed.
Anyway, she cooked it and we finally got to go over to have a meal together.
She cooked the dish with some premix curry paste that had a lovely balance of sweet, savory, spicy, tangy, and salty. It was a thicker type of curry which I absolutely love especially having it with rice.
The fish was sweet and the curry sauce enhanced everything making it a perfect meal. She also added ladies fingers into the curry to cook as well as onions which gave the dish even more natural sweetness.
She also cooked a side dish of stir fried spinach which was also very nice. A lovely meal cooked by my Mum that's both delicious and full of love. Yummmmyy! ~~
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Last day of the event and it was my turn to cook. I made one of my Mum's all-time signature dishes which recipe has been passed down from her mum and her mum's mum and God knows how many more generations before.
I made a dish called 'Chai Bouy' which is mustard greens cooked with pork. It's a fairly simple dish that anyone can make and doesn't have any particularly difficult cooking technique involved. All you need are the right ingredients and you're good to go.
I used pork should that I cut into chunks and marinated it with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce. You can also use pork belly or chicken if you'd like. This dish does typically use this ingredient but I used pork stomach as well which I boiled with some black peppercorns and ginger for about 10 minutes then removed it and sliced it up into rough slices.
For the main stew dish, start by toasting some dried chilies and lemongrass with some oil. After they get fragrant, add in the pork to stir fry for about 4-5 minutes to brown. Next, add in water, slices of dried tamarind (Assam keping), and a whole bulb of unpeeled garlic.
Add in the pork stomach to the stew and let everything simmer for at least an hour. For the final 10 minutes add in your favorite leafy vegetable preferably mustard greens but I didn't have any so I added in cabbage and some other greens that I had.
One final season to taste and the dish is done. Serve with white rice and enjoy. The dish is savory, salty, slightly spicy, and slightly sour from the tamarind slices. An appetising dish that will surely satisfy.
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nother day of the event and it was my Filipino colleague's turn to cook. After having some Thai food the other day, he was craving for more so he made some 'Pad Kra Pao' for our staff meal.
Instead of using minced pork, he used pieces of boneless chicken instead but every other ingredient was as authentic as it gets. Fish sauce, fresh chilies, garlic and Thai basil went in to stir fry with the chicken. Season to taste with some salt and a little more fish sauce and the dish was done.
He also cooked everyone a side of sunny fried egg that were crispy on the edges and the yolk runny and creamy. It paired to wonderfully with the 'Pad Kra Pao' and white rice that we simple cooked in a rice cooker. The savouriness from the yolk mixed with the salty, spicy and basil infused chicken was an amazing pairing.
A super delicious lunch but made with inexpensive ingredients and not to mention fast and with minimal prep. A recipe that anyone who cooks should have in their arsenal. Absolutely yums! ~~
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It's been 4 months since our last team calibration meeting and this time after the session, we went for dinner at a restaurant called 'Serai'.
They have various cuisines on their menu like Malaysian cuisine, Thai cuisine, and some western food like fish & chips.
Since there were over 20 of us there, we ordered a variety of dishes from the menu but some highlights to mention were the Tomyam which was really nice. Its on the sour side which I like and not overly spicy that you can't enjoy spoonfuls of the delicious tomyam broth.
Another dish that was absolutely amazing and a must try if you ever visit is their fried brinjal dish. It's thinly sliced brinjal that's been battered and deep fried. It was super flavorful and I'll definitely be ordering this again when I visit.
Their dishes are typically very generous in portion especially their western dishes however if I were to compare their local and Thai dishes with their western, I would definitely recommend having their Asian dishes more. Their western dishes are decent but you can find these type of dishes elsewhere.
Overall highly recommended for their local Malaysian cuisines and their Thai food. Waiters and servers were very prompt in their service and the environment was lovely.
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2nd day of the part timers working at the event and after their first meal the previous day that was super spicy, I decided to cook something much milder with 0 chilies or even pepper in sight.
I made something my Mum makes which is a simple chicken dish with ginger and soy sauce.
I used chicken tenders that I sliced up then marinated for about 15-20 minutes with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce.
The ginger is sliced up roughly and Sautéed in some oil until they are fragrant. Then minced garlic goes in for a couple of seconds before the chicken is added and then wok fried. Add some water or chicken stock to the pan and let everything simmer for 5-6 minutes. A very quick and easy meal to get ready that is budget friendly and most of all delicious to eat.
We also had some leftover broccoli and cauliflower from the previous day so I made a stir fry with them together with some carrots and cabbage that I sliced up.
I start the dish by toasting in oil a mixture of spices which contains mustard seeds, fennel seeds, and some other Indian-based spices. I then added tomato paste and all the vegetables to in. Season with salt and chicken stock and simmer for about 5-6 minutes and the dish is ready!
A super delicious and simple home cook meal that I'm sure anyone will love.
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There was an event that the cafe I work at were participating at and they hired 2 part timers for the week. It was nice seeing new faces around the cafe although we didn't get to interact with them as we're busy with our work as always.
We had to prepare more lunch on those days as there were more mouths to feed. 1 of my colleague made some New Orleans wings that he oven roasted with some premix barbecue hot sauce. It had the word 'HOT' and was it ever!
He marinated the wings overnight with the sauce then oven roasted it. Every 5 minutes of roasting he baited the wings with the hot sauce adding more flavor to it as it caramelised in the oven but as well intensifying the spiciness as he did that.
It was one of the hottest meals we have ever had for our staff meal lunches. The part timers were literally taking gulps of water after every bite which we found hilarious. Wasn't a great start to their first free meal cooked by us 😅 haha
Although the wings were super spicy, it was extremely flavorful and if it really is 'New Orleans' authentic, man they really can take spicy food.
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My Filipino colleague cooked some adobo the other day. He used pork trotters to make it and it was my 1st time having it. Since then he has cooked another adobo another time which I really enjoy.
Its an extremely popular Filipino dish with Spanish influence. It has dried chilies soy sauce, sugar, some vinegar if I'm not mistaken and the spices are black peppercorns and dried bay leaf. He also added potatoes to the dish and stewed it for a couple of hours. The potatoes go in last as they take a shorter amount of time than the pork trotters to soften.
It took about 1+ hours to cook this and the potatoes going in for the final 15-20 minutes. It was so delicious and had a wonderful balance of sweet, savory, spicy, and tangy. A super delicious dish that I now know why Filipinos love it so much.
He also prepared another dish to accompany the adobo which was broccoli, cauliflowers and mushrooms that he simply seasoned with salt and pepper then roasting in the oven for a couple of minutes. The broccoli and cauliflower were cooked to perfection and had a nice crunch to it yet cooked all the way through and was so sweet.
An amazing lunch that we had with rice that I'll definitely remember. Yums! ~~
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Went to my favorite 'mamak' restaurant again a couple of Sunday's ago after church. I love their rice and curry dishes especially my go to 'Ayam Bawang' which is onions and chicken.
The 'Ayam bawang' is fried chicken that's cooked in a thick sauce of onions that have been cooked and caramelised with loads of spices like star anise, cloves, and fennel seeds. Those are some that I can notice when eating this dish but I'm sure there are loads more spices as its extremely aromatic flavorful.
The thick gravy that's almost paste-like is sweet from the onions and so aromatic and tasty from the spices and herbs. The chicken is tender and succulent where the flavor from the gravy seeps in and flavors the chicken well.
I had this dish with rice topped with a mixture of their various and delicious curries as well as some ladies fingers for my vegetable.
Its not a pretty looking dish to most but to me this is what my comfort food looks like. If there was any dish that is the equivalent of a sloppy joe, rice and curry here in Malaysia would be it. Simply delicious! ~~
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After having rice for lunch fit do many days, my Filipino colleague cooked some noodles. He made a stir fried rice vermicelli (mihun) dish that was super delicious.
It had chicken slices, cabbage, and carrots. I'm not too sure what else he added but it tasted like the seasonings had soy sauce and oyster sauce in it. There was also fresh coriander in it which I don't really like but overall the dish was so good that I ignored the coriander taste.
It was savory from the chicken and sweetness came from the cabbage and carrots. The noodles were perfectly cooked; not crunchy or mushy.
He also cooked some frozen dumplings on the flat top making it crispy and chewy at the same time. There were two flavors, shrimp dumplings and kimchi dumplings. Both were really nice. He topped it with a chili and shrimp oil and garnished it with chopped coriander giving it a nice freshness.
We had the fried rice vermicelli and dumplings together and the chili oil made the whole meal very appetising and delicious.
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Planning for meals isn't always easy but part of the fun is the planning of it, at least for me it is.
The other day I made a chicken pie for the staff meal. The supermarket doesn't have any puff pastry so I needed to improvise. I bought some frozen 'paratha' which I used to substitute the puff pastry. I figured it's made with butter and flour as well so it'll be flaky and replicate that of a puff pastry.
For the filling, I cleaned and chopped up some leek and sliced some fresh mushrooms. I used king oysters and shiitaki for this dish but you could use whatever is available including canned mushrooms if that's all you have.
I Sautéed them in a pan with salt and pepper then added in 2 cans of cream of chicken soup. Add just a little water to loosen up the mixture but not too much as you want a pie filling and not chicken soup.
Next, add it into a baking dish and layer the 'paratha' or puff pastry on top. I decorated mine with some sliced up 'paratha' to make it look pretty.
Brush some egg wash on top and get it into a 180 degree oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until its golden brown.
Take it out and it's ready to be served. Super delicious and a nice comforting dish especially on cold and rainy days.
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Often for breakfast at the cafe, we the kitchen staff make something simple with the ingredients in the kitchen. It varies a lot as we use leftovers or items that we have too much of and are expiring.
We had some leftover egg wash that we use to coat the Portobello mushrooms to deep fry. The eggs had the Portobello seasoning flavor which is a garlic infused oil with Korean chili flakes. I used this and made a French-style omelet.
On the side, I used the Portobello mushrooms stems that we cut off the mushrooms we serve at the cafe and Sautéed them. The mushrooms roasted and soaked in the same garlic infused chili flakes oil so I didn't use any seasonings for this except a little salt to taste.
We also had some shokupan toast edges so I toasted them with some butter and plated it up with my omelet and mushroom stems. I then added a saucer of honey mustard which we also serve in the cafe and garnished the omelet with some microgreens which were dying and needed to be used.
A typical 'not-so-typical' chef's meal that's delicious and energising for the long day ahead of cooking and serving food.
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I've been missing my Mum's cooking so I decided to make a dish that she used to make for me growing up. Even when we were still staying together, she didn't cook this dish much so I was thinking it's a good time to cook this dish since its been a really long time since I've had it.
Its an inexpensive dish and fairly easy to make. It's a large omelet that has baked beans from a can topped on it. Simple enough right?
First I sauté some onions and potatoes in a pan with salt and pepper. After the potatoes soften, add in a can of baked beans to the pan and warm it up. If you like it spicy, you can add in some chili flakes at this point and let everything cook for 3-4 minutes.
In a non-stick pan, add in beaten eggs of about 5-6 eggs and make a large omelet. I like the fried omelet style for this so let it cook and set at the bottom. Then with some flipping skills, flip the egg with a toss in the air and cook on the other side. Alternatively you can transfer it to a plate and flip the egg more manually.
Add some salt to taste and plate the omelet up. Top the omelet with the baked beans and hash mixture and the dish is done!
Since I made this at the cafe, I added some gouda cheese on top and torched it to melt the cheese.
It was super delicious and had me a nostalgic moment of meals from my childhood.
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The Brioche French Toast is one of the signature items at the cafe I work at. It's one of the prettier looking dishes that we serve. It takes at least 10 minutes to make this dish as the plating takes quite a bit of time to prepare and in restaurant standards, 10 minutes is considered borderline long.
Here's how we make it:
Firstly we use a shokupan milk loaf slice that we soak in an egg wash mixture of eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. It then gets a coating of panko bread crumbs and then it goes in the deep fryer for 2 minutes on each side.
I know what you're thinking, it'll be too oily being deep fried, but it doesn't actually get submerged as it floats and fries only on the surface.
After draining for a minute, the French toast goes on a plate and is dusted with beetroot powder. 3 corners of the toast has some matcha crumble placed at the side and on the other top right corner, some scratch made blueberry jam.
Next, mascapone is piped on and then the plate is decorated with fresh strawberries and blueberries followed by edible flowers and microgreens.
Finally a saucer of caramel is placed on the side and the dish is ready to be served.
A super instragramable dish that not only looks the part but taste great too. Sweet and savory combination at its best! ~~
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Another day my Filipino colleague wasn't around so I cooked tomyam again. However this time I cooked a fusion dish of a creamy tomyam with spaghetti. It's a dish I used to serve when I was operating my own restaurant. One of my colleague was watching a tiktok video of someone making this dish and I told her I'd make it for lunch one day.
So the dish starts with pan frying some chicken tenders that I seasoned with salt, pepper, and some corn starch.
After browning the tenders on both sides, remove the tenders from the and and in the same pan I started sautéing tomyam paste with thinly sliced lemongrass and minced garlic together with some slice chilies.
I then add in kaffir lime leaves and the starch water from the spaghetti that I cooked. After that, coconut milk goes in and the pan fried chicken tenders is added back into the sauce to simmer for 7-8 minutes.
Serve it up with spaghetti and grated parmigiano regiano and it's ready to eat. It was tangy, slightly spicy, creamy, and had loads of umami flavor from the tomyam paste. Super delicious and a fusion dish worth the time to prepare. Yums! ~~
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My colleague cooked the staff meal the other day and made some dry rubbed curry chicken tenders. He doesn't have much culinary sense or skills and does a lot of food I particularly wouldn't do however because he makes cooking decisions like dry rub chicken tenders which are already a very lean cut of meat making everything extra dry, I get to learn that it really doesn't work. Haha ~~
Anyway, the food was still edible and didn't taste horrid. It was actually decent especially if you're not picky in your food consumption.
He started with chicken tenders rubbed with curry powder and seasoned with salt and pepper. Since it was chicken tenders, oil should've been added to make it more moist and would help in the cooking process of the meat not drying out.
The other dish he made was stir fried mushrooms. He used various fresh mushrooms like enoki, straw mushrooms, and shiitaki mushrooms. It had a lot of gravy so I guess it helped with the dry rubbed curry chicken.
We ate these 2 dishes with white rice. A simple and tummy filling meal. Grateful to have other people preparing meals for us even if it's not always perfect.
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It was a Saturday that my Filipino colleague was not around so it was my turn to cook the staff meal. He doesn't like tomyam so I decided what better time to cook tomyam as the other staff love tomyam.
I start off my sautéing some tomyam paste with fresh lemongrass, garlic, and roughly chopped onions. Next, about 1+ liter water goes in then on high heat, bring the stock to a boil. Once it starts boiling, I reduced the heat and begin to add in the other ingredients.
I used frozen items and canned items for this tomyam. I added in seafood tofu that had cheese in them and some canned straw mushrooms.
For the vegetables, I added in napa cabbage that I roughly chopped and some freshly sliced green chilies.
We ate all this with white rice and it was a super delicious meal. The tomyam was slightly spicy, tangy, and so flavorful. It also had lots of sweetness that came from the napa cabbage. Such a wonderful combination and especially delicious on a cold and rainy day.
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It was my turn to cook and after eating rice for many days in a row, I decided to have a change and cooked some noodles instead.
I bought some udon noodles and cooked black pepper yakiudon. I seasoned up some chicken tenders that I sliced up with black pepper and salt.
For the vegetables, I used napa cabbage that I simple sliced up, carrots that I cut into julienne strips, and some onions roughly sliced up as well.
For the sauce, I used oyster sauce, soy sauce and black pepper sauce as well as freshly cracked black pepper for even more black pepper flavor and aroma.
I used th flat top and turned it up to high then teppanyaki-style, added some garlic oil and stir fried the onions, carrots, and cabbage.
Once the vegetable soften a little, I add the chicken slices and cook them for about 4-5 minutes. Once they are cooked I add in the udon noodles that I've lightly blanched earlier in boiling water to loosen them up. I stir fried them with the vegetables before adding in the sauce and cooking everything on high heat for another 5-7 minutes.
It was such a delicious meal - the udon was nice and soft and the vegetables giving the dish some crunch and natural sweetness. The black pepper was so present and really hit you with a nice kick of aroma and flavor which I enjoyed a lot as I do love black pepper flavored stuff. Delish! ~~
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Every 15th & 30th of the month this chain restaurant called 'Ayamas' here in Malaysia has a special discount for their roasted chicken. They are popularly known for their roasted chicken with 3 different flavors - honey, black pepper, and 'percik' which is a marinate that has various spices and curry powder.
I love their 'Percik' flavored one so that's what I ordered for dinner the other day on the way home from work. It used to be 50% off on those 2 dates but now it's just a couple of bucks cheaper. Oh well, it still tastes good and it's worth the price.
I ordered a whole chicken and it's cut up into 16 pieces. The chicken was so juicy and moist and the marinade made it so flavorful and aromatic. They also serve a sweet chili dipping sauce that comes with the chicken and pairs with it really beautifully.
I did however think that they might have changed the recipe a little as it didn't taste the same as I remembered it to be. If that's the case, I prefer their older recipe but this wasn't too bad either.
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The other day my Filipino colleague was gonna cooking the day's staff meal and didn't know what to cook. I suggested him to cook 'Bicol Express' again. It was the first dish that I ate of his cooking and really enjoyed it.
So he made 'Bicol Express' again with pork shoulder cuts and chicken breast chunks. The dish starts with ginger that is roughly chopped up and added into a pan with oil to saute. Once the ginger is fragrant, add in the pork shoulder as it takes longer to cook than the chicken.
Next, add fish sauce and coconut milk and let everything simmer for 30 minutes. Add in the chicken breast and sliced green chilies and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and the dish is done! A simple but delicious dish that's creamy and super flavorful.
He also made a vegetable dish of roasted broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and corn. It's simply seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with garlic oil. You could add in whatever seasoning you like and it'll turn out great.
We ate these 2 dishes with white rice and it was a really yummy and energizing lunch.
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Last week for work, I cooked the staff some delicious roasted Peri-Peri Chicken. I accompanied the dish with some tomato rice, roasted leeks, and a leek and cream sauce.
I used chicken thighs for this dish but you would use any part you like. I started off by marinating the chicken with lemon zest, harbanero hot sauce, paprika, salt, black pepper, butter, garlic oil and thyme. I let it marinade for a good 30 minutes to let the flavors seep into the the meat thoroughly.
I then set them on a tray and roasted them for 45 minutes on 180 degree celcius opening the oven every 10 minutes or so to baist with the marinade and chicken drippings. Not skipping this step ensures you get a moist chicken and a phenomenal crispy skin.
For the cream sauce I sautéed the leeks that I roughly sliced with butter, flour and milk making a bechamel sauce then seasoning it with salt and chicken powder.
The white bottoms of the leek, I roasted them together with the chicken at the final 10 minutes of baking the chicken.
For the tomato rice, simply add butter and tomato paste into rice and boil in a rice cooker. Super simple with maximum flavor.
Plate everything up and drizzle the creamy leek bechamel sauce and the Peri-peri oil drippings and you're done. A super delicious dish with a lot of care and love gone in to prepare it. Yummy! ~~
#food #foodie
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