FOODlog #230: Artisanal Focaccia Chicken Sandwich Went to Duwa Artisanal Bakery again and this time I had to try something I haven't tried yet which is their Focaccia sandwich with roasted chicken and a side of truffle chips. I've tried everything there including all their pizzas and I've been wanting to try this Focaccia sandwich which didn't disappoint. It was super delicious and the Focaccia bread was so fluffy and you could smell the aroma and fragrance of the olive oil.…
FOODlog #229: Nasi Lemak Ayam A friend of mine is opening a pizza place soon. He DIYed the whole place himself to save cost and he even built a woodfire dome pizza oven all by himself. Talk about resourceful. I dropped by to check the place out before it opens and its been looking really impressive especially since he built everything himself. We went nearby to have a bite and I ordered a takeaway of 'Nasi Lemak' with a side of fried chicken. It's a small stall run by an…
FOODlog #228: Malaysian Ayam Masak Hitam Dish Cooked a Malay dish called - 'Ayam Masak Hitam' for the staff meal and its a really simple recipe that anyone can do at home too. Its a chicken dish which you can replace with beef if you'd like and uses South East Asian household pantry items like soy sauce and dark soy sauce. For the aromatics, I used cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, dried chili, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. I used chicken breast and sliced it up. You could use…
FOODlog #227: Lemongrass & Tamarind Chicken Soup Some weeks ago I cooked one of my Mum's signature dishes for the staff at the cafe. It uses pork but I used chicken instead. I swapped the protein but every other ingredient I used what the dish uses. This dish is a stew that uses aromatics like lemongrass, garlic, dried chili, and dried tamarind slices. For the marinade of the chicken, it uses soy sauce, oyster sauce, and dark soy sauce. Marinade it for an hour or so or if…
FOODlog #226: New Year's Eve Dinner On New Year's Eve, a close friend of ours invites us for dinner at their home. We had a potluck and had lots of delicious food. One of our friends made a meatball and cheese bake and some fresh mushroom soup. The meatballs were pork meatballs and were super moist and flavorful. She baked it with tomato sauce made from scratch and topped the dish with some melt cheese. It was my favorite dish of the night. The mushroom soup could've been a…
FOODlog #225: Fried Vermicelli For dinner on that Saturday my mum came over to the house and she cooked some delicious wok fried vermicelli. This is one of the dishes she cooks that I really love as I don't cooked noodles often and for vermicelli, it's hard to get it right as it's super neutral in flavor and when you do cook it in a wok, you need some skill in controlling the fire and the amount of oil added or you'll just get a whole wok full of vermicelli sticking to it.…
FOODlog #224: Malaysian Maggi Goreng with Spicy Tofu The next day after me and my wife went for a late supper, the next day she had work in the morning till after lunch so I had a rare day to myself as well and had lunch at a nearby place which opened recently. Its a 'mamak' restaurant that serves all the usual local food that you expect at a 'mamak'. I ordered a plate of 'Maggi goreng' which I haven't had in awhile and wanted to also try whether this place serves good wok…
FOODlog #223: Dim Sum at Mee Bon A couple of weeks ago on a Friday, my kids went to my parents place to stay for the night. Me and my wife don't get to spend lots of time just the two of us so it was a nice time together that night. We went for supper at a dimsum place called Mee Bon. They open till around 1-2am and we went around 10pm to have a bite. I can't even remember when I last went for supper in the later part of the night since getting married and having kids let…
FOODlog #222: Deep Fried Bagel with Chicken Porridge When you're eating rice on a daily basis, sometimes you want to eat something different. My Filipino colleague made porridge with non other than rice. So I guess even though we don't wanna eat rice, we still are eating rice in a another form which I guess is something a little different. He strayed with using two pots to cook the ingredients. In one pot he cooked the chicken with all its aromatics like ginger and garlic.…
FOODlog #221: Macerating Berries for Jam Macerating - a technique of cooking I've learned recently that's actually so simple to do. This is a technique used to make jam and all you need is fruit and sugar. The ratio should be around 1:3 sugar to fruit and all you need to do it dump sugar on the fruit and mix them together. So if you're having about 3kg of blueberry or strawberry, you'll need 1kg of white sugar. Just simply add sugar to the blueberries and then mix them…
FOODlog #220: Sichuan Beef Stir Fry The other day I made lunch for the staff. I wanted to make a mainland China Chinese dish called 'Da Pan Ji' which literally translates to 'Big Plate Chicken'. There's a restaurant that we go to that serves this dish and I wanted to try to cook it. I had beef to use at the kitchen so I made this dish with beef instead of chicken. I used some Brazilian striploin that's thinly sliced and very tender. I marinated it with soy sauce, oyster…
FOODlog #219: Chicken Terriyaki The other day my Filipino colleague prepared and cooked lunch for us. He made some Chinese food and cooked a total of 3 dishes! We had a pan fried boneless chicken thigh topped with a salty savoury sauce made with onions, garlic, and soy sauce. The chicken had a crispy skin and super tender meat. It paired so wonderfully with the onion and garlic soy sauce with steamed rice. Another dish he made was stir fried cauliflower topped with Korean…
FOODlog #218: That Duck Place Nearby where I work is a place called 'That Duck Place'. It serves roasted duck and rice but they have other dishes like roasted chicken and also noodles with chicken as well. However their main item they promote is their roasted duck. We finally tried the food from this restaurant for one of our staff meals during a day where we were understaffed. We didn't wanna cook so it was convenient for us to just get a takeaway and from a place we've…
FOODlog #217: Smoked Duck Assam Pedas Me, my family and friends went for lunch to this place called 'Wokbeque' which is located like just 1 minute walk away from our church. A super convenient place to have lunch since it's just so nearby. I like going to this place because their portions are extremely generous for the price they are charging. The taste of the food is really good as well when the head chef is there that is. We went once where the head chef was on holidays…
FOODlog #216: Japanese Curry Chicken & Mix Vegetables I had some Japanese curry seasoning cubes left at home so I brought them over to the cafe to cook it for the staff. This brand called 'Vermont' is my go to brand as I've tried others before and this one is the best among them. All you need is your choice of protein. I normally use chicken or pork but this time I used chicken drumsticks for curry. It uses just a few ingredients which I used carrots, potatoes, and onions…
FOODlog #215: Smokey Bacon & Eggs Breakfast We had some smoked bacon left-over from the other day and one of the mornings at work I was hungry and wanted some breakfast. So I cooked up myself a slab of the smokey bacon together with a sunny side up egg and some toast. I came in early to work so I had time to make myself some breakfast with some of the unusable sides of the Shokupan loaf at the shop and used it for my toast. I simply butter it and toast it on a panini press.…
FOODlog #214: Filipino Monggo Pork Stew I'm always excited when my Filipino colleague cooks lunch for everyone. He makes really yummy Filipino dishes which I've always wanted to try. How much more authentic can it get when it's someone cooking his childhood home cooked food. This time he cooked something called 'Mongo' which is mung beans that's cooked with various aromatics like lemongrass, ginger, and chili, together with pork trotters. He first cooks the mung beans…
FOODlog #213: Smoked Beef in Coconut Broth A couple of weeks ago I met up with a friend for dinner after work. Went to a place called 'Itik Salai' which translates as smoked duck. They serve a variety of local Malay dishes that have smoked meats in them like smoked duck which is their signature dish and also smoked beef cooked with coconut milk and various herbs and spices. These sort of 'salai' dishes have become popular in Malaysia over the past few years and it's so great…
FOODlog #212: Christmas Dinner 2022 I'm finally writing the long overdue Christmas celebration that me and my friends had on Christmas Eve. We celebrated with a meal together at church with all our families having a lovely time of hanging out and spending Christmas together. My brother mainly settled all the arrangements for the food and man we got to have a feast! We had roasted pork belly (siew yok), barbecue pork (char siew), and of course a lovely roasted bird but not a…
FOODlog #211: Brother's Birthday Celebration at London Duck It was my brother's birthday and our family went out to celebrate after my work. I was really excited to see them as it was my last day of the week to work and we met up for dinner to celebrate his birthday. We went to a really nice place which he picked out. The restaurant is called 'London Duck' and I have to say after trying the food at this place, they probably serve one of the best roast duck I've eaten in my…
FOODlog #210: Malaysian Mix Rice Haven't written in about 2 weeks but I'm back now and hope to be writing and posting daily as usual. It's been emotionally and mentally tiring at work, something I did not foresee I was gonna face besides it being physically challenging. But I guess where there are human beings to work with, there will be problems especially when everyone has different core values. Anyway, it's a food blog post and here's the food part of the blog 😄 For some…
FOODlog #209: Spicy Ramyeon with Smoked Pork Bacon Last week my colleague cooked lunch for the staff and he made some Spicy Ramyeon topped with pan seared smoked pork belly, some enoki mushrooms, a poached egg, and some freshly sliced spring onions. The Ramyeon noodles were from an instant noodle pack that all you need to do is cook it for about 3-4 minutes in some hot water. Add the seasonings from the packed and you're done. Simple but readily available and easy to make,…
FOODlog #208: Spinach Lasagna It's my favorite time of the year in terms of festivities being Christmas and all. I love that it's the school holidays where I get to play with my son later in the night. I love that everyone is giving one another gifts and presents. I love that it's the time of the year where we look back through the year and give thanks for the year as well as we look forward to the new year ahead. Its just an amazing time of the year where almost the whole…
FOODlog #207: Orecchiette Broccoli A couple of weeks ago I cooked the staff meal and made an Italian inspired dish. I made orecchiette broccoli. In Italian it means 'ear' as it looks like small ear-shaped pasta and is able to be a wonderful vehicle for any type of pasta sauce. I made and oil base one with the main ingredient being broccoli. Orecchiette pasta with broccoli and a sauce made from the broccoli stems blended with garlic oil, dried local chilies, and a tablespoon…
FOODlog #206: Artisan Sourdough Pizzas Earlier this month me and some friends went to celebrate @hooiyewlim 's birthday. We went to a friend's cafe that has recently opened and they were having their soft launch. Its a place that serves artisan Sourdough pizzas and other baked goods. He's a professional Baker so all his bake goods have great quality and taste really good. We ordered 3 different types of pizzas to share - a margherita, a mushroom pizza, and a beef brisket…
FOODlog #205: Hainanese Chicken Rice After a tough day at work the other day, I met up with my parents and brothers for dinner as we were needing to have a family meeting on financial matters. We had dinner at a new place at a mall nearby the train station where they picked me up from after my work. This place was serving local delights like chicken rice, Nasi Lemak, char Kuey teow and other local food. I wasn't really in the mood for food but ordered anyway as I knew I…
FOODlog #204: Mee Pok & Chocolate Sundae A few Sundays ago, me and my friends went for lunch after church. We went to a local hawker center but the place was totally packed and we needed to wait a bit for an empty table. I ordered a noodle dish called 'Mee Pok' which is a flat noodle dish mixed with soy sauce and dark soy sauce. It comes together with some minced pork and barbecued pork slices as well as a soup on the side. It took really really long for the food to arrive…
FOODlog #203: Lobster Meatballs Laksa I have 2 off days a week from work which one day is on a Sunday as the cafe is closed on Sundays and another day of my choosing depending as well on the other kitchen crew when they're taking off. Normally I pick Saturdays and on my off day on a Saturday I have music practice at church and sometimes I hang out with some friends after that. In one of the Saturdays after practice, me and a friend went to hangout at a local shopping mall's…
FOODlog #202: Chicken Casserole with Tomatoes & Potatoes Often whenever I don't know what to cook, I think of the food that my Mum cooks for us and cook those dishes for my staff meals. And that's just what I did the other day. I cooked 2 dishes that is in my Mum's recipe bag. I made a chicken fillet stir fry with cinnamon sticks, fresh tomatoes, and potatoes, seasoned with soy sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic. Its an easy dish to make with inexpensive ingredients. First I…
FOODlog #201: Mamak Mee Goreng I'm really grateful and thankful for my Mum and wife who cooks dinner almost every other day. I'm so appreciative of their time and effort put into cooking as I get to come home from work and there's already a hot meal prepared ready for me to eat. Even when they don't cook, they still look into making sure there's food to eat which they either pick up some food from a nearby shop and order a takeaway or get a takeaway via food delivery. The…
@drumsticks
