FOODlog #321: Beef Chili Oil Fettuccine 2 Saturdays ago, I cooked lunch for the staff meal and made some spicy noodles. We had minced beef from our burger R&D that has been going on so I used the patties and repurpose them into making a sauce from the mince. I started with sautéing some garlic and onions then added in the mince beef together with chili oil that we make at the cafe. Stir fry everything for a couple of minutes until the beef browns and then season it to taste…
FOODlog #322: White Bean Stew One of the R&D dishes that I came up with for the cafe was the cannellini white bean stew. One of my all time favorite types of dishes to cook is stew. I guess it's because I like to eat stews but also that I'm good at making them. This one is mainly a vegetable stew although I do use chicken stock which can be swapped out for vegetable stock. Its a fairly simple stew that starts of with a base of mirepoix sautéed in butter and olive oil. The…
FOODlog #323: Fettuccine with Grilled Mustard Chicken My colleague cooked some really delicious pasta the other day for our staff meal. We had leftover fettuccine from the cafe so he used it to cook our meal. For the sauce, he made a roux and then added milk and cajun seasoning into the sauce and cooked it. He then seasoned it to taste with salt and pepper and added chili flakes and the sauce is done. He added the fettuccine noodles into the sauce and mixed them together…
FOODlog #324: Pork Trotter & Mushroom Stew at Mum's On my off day last week, I went to my parents place for lunch with my kids. My Mum was cooking lunch and it was such a delicious meal. I always love my mum's cooking and that day she made some of my favorite dishes. She cooked her signature pork trotter stew that has been passed down for generations. It's part of our heritage which I guess is why I'm naturally in love with it. Its a fairly easy dish to make and you'll need…
FOODlog #325: Meatloaf My colleague who has an interest in and likes history recently cooked another meal that was created during the depression era. The last time he cooked something related was bangers and mash and this time he made meatloaf. Its a fairly simple dish and it turned out really good visually and also tasted really yummy. Mince beef is mixed with onions and carrots that's been diced and shredded thinly together with breadcrumbs, milk, and a couple of eggs to…
FOODlog #326: Garlic Naan and Onion Chicken Saturday after work, I went for dinner with a friend before going to church for music practice. We headed to one of my favorite places for a dish I was craving called - 'Ayam Bawang' which translates to Onion Chicken. Its Chicken that's cooked with lots of different spices and loads of onions that have been cooked down, caramelised, super tender, soft, and sweet. I got this with rice and an assortment of mixed curries and dived…
FOODlog #327: Dry Fish Curry with Rice One of the days last month I cooked some dried curry with fish for the staff meal. I used pangasius fish fillets which is a type of catfish that's locally farmed and also imported from Vietnam. Apparently there is a lot of bad rep for this fish and it's unhygienic way of farming it but I've done some research and it seems to have propaganda ties to it to suppress demand for this fish. One of the reasons coz it's super cheap and easy to…
FOODlog #328: Taiwanese Beef Stew It's beef day again! One of our colleagues doesn't eat beef so whenever she's not around and on her off-day, we normally cook beef. This time it was my turn to cook and I prepped the beef the day before to marinade. I made a Taiwanese red braised beef stew which I used some Korean ingredients to make it. I used gochujang, and bean paste together with soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar, to marinade the meat. The next day, I prepped the…
FOODlog #329: Pattaya Fried Rice After work the other day, I went for dinner with some friends at a Malay Tom Yum and stir fry restaurant called 'Sri Niara'. Its a place that I've been going to since I was in high school and it's been awhile since I last visited. What is a Malay Tom Yum restaurant? It's basically Thai food that's been localised and now it's synonymous as part of Malay cuisine. I ordered for myself 'Nasi Goreng Pattaya' which is fried rice wrapped in an egg…
FOODlog #330: Peri-Peri Char Roasted Chicken We've been in an R&D phase at the cafe of concocting a new menu to cater to a different customer base. We've been experimenting on pastas and wanted try out one using yogurt but the head chef didn't wanna put it on the menu so we had lots of yogurt leftover. One of my colleagues decided to use it for our staff meal and made a roasted chargrillrd chicken using the yogurt as one of the ingredients. He marinated the chicken thighs…
FOODlog #331: Egg Fried Rice with Portobello Mushroom We had some leftover rice from the previous day that was kept in the fridge. It wasn't such a huge amount to make lunch so I used it for a light breakfast instead. I made some egg fried rice with Portobello mushroom stems that we have from our Portobello mushrooms we sell at the cafe. I used the marinade of the mushrooms which is oil, garlic, and Korean chili flakes that's used to roast the mushrooms. I started the fried…
FOODlog #332: Sichuan Pickle Ramen Another day another ramen dish. This time I made a super simple but extremely satisfying and flavorful broth using just 3 ingredients. It's a dish that I learned from my Mum and it's so delicious not to mention easy to make. The ingredients for the broth is garlic, chicken stock, and sichuan preserved vegetables which is slightly spicy and salty. Just julienne it and throw all the ingredients into a boiling pot of water and let everything…
FOODlog #333: Malaysian Nasi Goreng "USA" Recently been going to this restaurant called 'Restoran Kari Kepala Ikan Taman Melawati'. It's a place that serves local 'mamak' food as well as Malay ala-Thai dishes and also a stall that serves really nice satay. I've tried the satay there before and it's a go-to spot now whenever I'm craving satay so this time I tried something else on the menu. I ordered a plate of 'Nasi Goreng USA', which is fried rice served with a side of beef…
FOODlog #334: Beef Shawarma A friend of mine has been raving about this shawarma place he recently tried. It was first recommended by my brother and this is the first time my friend brought me there to try it out. They have an option of beef or chicken for the protein. I took their beef this time for my first try and it didn't disappoint. The filling of the beef in the wrap was generous and the sauce that accompanied it was creamy and delicious. It was slightly spicy and had…
FOODlog #335: Moroccan Lamb Sausage It was my colleagues turn to cook the staff meal which he cooked some beef sausages he bought the other day. It was a Moroccan spiced beef sausage which was stuffed in a natural casing. Not sure what casing it was but it was natural. He then seared it on the flat top on both sides for about 5-6 minutes on each side and the sausages were done. The sausages were beefy and had some nice spices. I could taste primarily cumin and fennel powder…
FOODlog #336: Open-face Grilled Cheese Sandwich One of our new items on the menu that we've been doing R&D the past 2 months is a "Croque Madame'. It's a French dish that is basically an open-face sandwich topped with ham, Dijon mustard, bechamel sauce, Gouda cheese and a sunny side-up fried egg. We are doing a not so traditional one that we replace the Gouda with colby-jack cheese which has a mild and smooth to lightly sweet to sharp and tangy taste. A more complex range of…
FOODlog #337: Sausage & White Beans Stew Another new dish on the menu after our month long R&D is a stew. It's the only one on the menu and one of the items that was mainly contributed by me. Really proud of this dish and to have it in my cooking arsenal especially since stews are one of my favorite comfort foods. It's a white bean stew which is pretty easy to make. It starts off with dicing up a medley of carrots, onions, and celery. I use 250g for each of them and the…
FOODlog #338: Cumin Chili Lamb Pasta One of my favorite dishes on the new menu at the cafe is the Cumin Lamb Pasta. It's a mainland Chinese inspired dish but the noodles are using parpadalle pasta instead of Chinese pulled noodles. The prep for this dish takes quite a bit of effort and time to make. First the lamb shoulders need to be roasted in an oven till fall apart tender. I'll write a detailed post on that soon. Next the chili oil is made with 2 parts to it. The first…
FOODlog #339: Char Kuey Teow Nowadays whenever we have a certain craving for a particular dish, our first thoughts is to whether we can make it instead of going to buy it. Today we had some cravings for 'char kuey teow', a classic Malaysian dish of stir fried flat rice noodles. One of the kitchen chef's made this and man was it as good as it gets. He made a sauce mix of soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and blended chili together. This is the sauce mix for stir frying…
FOODlog #340: Truffle Mini Hash Brown Another new item on the menu at the cafe is the mini truffle hash browns. This dish is replacing the truffle fries and all the fries items on the menu will be replaced with this mini hash browns. The truffle hash browns are tossed with truffle oil and then parmagiano regiano is shaved on top of it for a rich and salty flavor. Its garnished with some microgreens of coriander leaves and Beetroot leaves giving the dish a wonderful color.…
FOODlog #341: Portobello Katsu Burger One of the new additions to the new menu at the cafe, or more like a reconstructed item, is the Portobello katsu. It used to be served along with shokupan milk loaf bread but now it's been reconstructed to be a burger. Now it's served with a Brioche burger bun instead of the shokupan making it a burger instead of a Sando. Asides from the changes in bread, the rest of the ingredients are the same as well as the preparation and stacking of…
FOODlog #342: Cajun & Butter Tilapia with Buttermilk Dill Sauce Since I've started using TikTok, I've come across some really cool recipes and superb plating. So one of the days, for the staff meal, I cooked a fancier looking dish as I wanted to try experimenting with some things I watched on TikTok. I made a pan fried Cajun Tilapia fillet served with a Buttermilk and dill oil sauce. For the fish filet, I simply seasoned it with a Cajun creole rub and salt, then pan fried it…
FOODlog #343: Son's 8th Birthday Celebration Last month was my nephew and my eldest son's birthday. We had a celebration with our families at my parents place and ordered some food to go along with the celebrations. We had food from a local Chinese Muslim eatery that makes handpulled noodles. For my meal, I had their beef stir fried with handpulled noodles. The noodles were amazing and I really liked the texture. The sauce was slightly under taste but overall a good dish. We…
FOODlog #344: Malaysian Chili Pan Mee A couple of Sundays ago, my friends and family and I went for lunch as we always do, at a place nearby where I live. It's a hawker area where there are various stalls of food to choose from. That place has items like chicken rice, pan mee noodles, wantan mee, char Kuey teow and also economy mix rice. If you don't know the dishes above, these are local Malaysian dishes that's a staple to many locals. For my lunch, I ordered a bowl of…
FOODlog #345: Fried Chicken & Eggs Benedict Another R&D item in the works is this Southern style fried chicken with eggs benedict. It's also served with a slice of shokupan bread that we cut up into 3 pieces. The plating isn't finalise nor has this item made it onto the menu but like all good things, it takes time to perfect a recipe and how it's plated. The chicken is Buttermilk brined overnight and it's then drenched in seasoned floor before going into the fryer at 170…
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