Savouring around the globe

Laksa Shack - Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

2008-10-28T18:42:00.013+04:00

Today went jalan jalan in One Utama or OU. One of my favourite shopping malls, located in Bandar Utama area which is about 20 minutes drive from KLCC area. Within 5 minutes drive of that area, there are 4 malls (One Utama, The Curve, Ikano Power Centre, Tesco and IKEA).

I'm being biased as well, as I am also staying in this area. hehehe. I just love the arrays of activities available here. Shopping, food, movies, karaoke, pubs, pool bar and many many more. All within easy reach.

Anyways, one of my favourite Malaysian food is laksa. Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore. It uses many types of noodles and served with gravy specially made for each type.

Today we had Laksa Sarawak, Lontong and Roti Jala with chicken curry. The restaurant is called Laksa Shack. It is a popular franchise in Malaysia located at a lot of popular malls. There is one in KLCC and Bukit Bintang area as well. They serve varieties of Laksas, local rice delicacies and deserts. Very very good and clean. Prices very reasonable as most dishes priced at RM 9.90. Very cheap!!

Entrance to the 'shack'.

Told her that her photo will be in a magazine... hehehe

Varieties of gravy to be served with your choice of 'laksa'. Yum yum... Really!!

Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the town of Kuching in the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry in its ingredient at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with omelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added. Spicy and full of satisfying taste.

Sarawak Laksa - must try

Lontong is cubes of compressed rice cake served with gravy made of coconut juice mixed tumeric. Then add assorted vegetables such as tempe, long beans, cabbage, carrot... etc. Eat it with chilli sambal. Really really good.

The evergreen dish - Lontong

Roti jala are like crepes, only lacy. It is so so delicious to eat with chicken curry and potato.

All time favourites for tea time - roti jala

Cincau drink - grass jelly in syrup

Lime juice - using local limau kasturi. Excellent thirst quencher.

Note : You can get some nice noodle dishes in Abu Dhabi at Suria cafe, located in Eclipse Hotel Khalifa street. Price quite okay starting from Dhs 30.

Momento Cafe, AUH Mall - Abu Dhabi, UAE

2008-10-19T12:25:00.006+04:00

There is this cafe in Abu Dhabi Mall. The name is Momento Cafe. Location is on the top floor, same row as the cinema. It has a cafe, bowling alley, video games and karaoke room. The bowling area not to big laa, only like 6 lanes. But enuff laa. Never played there yet, coz quite expensive. I think like Dhs 20 per frame. It is cheaper in Zayed Sports City which I think charges Dhs 9 per frame.

Anyways I like to lepak at the cafe side. It it located on the outside of the premises, at the mall's aisle. So can look see look see people walking by. Quite interesting people, sometimes. But now since AUH Mall is declared a non-smoking mall, the smoking section is inside. No syok d. Sit inside for the first time. Next time wanna sit outside, but when wanna smoke, go inside.

Inside the cafe. Not many people lepak inside lo.

The food has arrived!! Yum yum

The food is not bad. Salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, desert... Mostly Italian food. The price is very reasonable. Say for a plate of pasta would cost about Dhs 22-25. Salad would cost Dhs 22. So kira okay laa. Some cafe charges like Dhs 45 for salad. Gila!! Dhs 45 to eat daun.

Tri-pasta Pesto

Risotto Fruity De-Mare (Nasi +butter + seafood la)

Roka Salad

First Squash game

2008-10-18T23:51:00.011+04:00

Today was a very productive day. In the morning, I went out at 9.30am. Had to stop by the bank at the airport. Somehow my VISA card was blocked. Some more when I was about to make a big purchase!! My SONY 46 inch. Kasi malu aje. That's why la I dun like to use card. CAsh is the best la.

So I went in the bank and saw the manager, Mr Waleed. Very nice and helpful Emirati guy. If u have any problem, just go and see him. Sure he tolong one. I told him about my problem and immediately he started clicking on his keyboard. After a few minutes of click click click, he said that he card was blocked because I made 2 transaction at Jusco Departmental store in Kuala Lumpur. As Malaysia is one of the country famous for card cloning, they have a policy of blocking card after a couple of use. Apa ni?? Dah taruk itu chip pun, mau block? Sumore the total spending of that 2 transaction only like RM 400+. Bought some t-shirt and seluar dalam only maa. So he said the bank has dispatched new card for me. Tapi not yet arrive. Aisay... How to spent like gila in KL laa. Nvm laa... ask gf to belanja la. Hehehehe...

After settling a few more issues at the bank, I went to Etihad Academy. Had to work at some point. Cannot makan gaji buta. Luckily had one trainee only. So easy laa. A bit of briefing, maybe 2 hours of simulator training, habis! Finito!! By 3pm sudah kau tim.

Then came back. Kerja tak banyak but so so tired la. After makan ssandwich yg gf order, the eyes got so so heavy. Like got gajah on the eye lid. So apa lagi... sleep on the sofa la. Sumore ter-sleep on top on PATRICK. Kesian kesian. Full of my air liur basi.

Poor Patrick

After woke up at 5pm, got ready to go to the club at Beach Rotana Hotel. Squash time!! Booked the court from 6-7pm. First time wanna try new racket. Sampai je straight whack the ball. Played like 5-6 game.

Apa ni? This is not tennis la

Hit ball to the corner, sumore wanna block me

Like this la!

Wrong wrong!!

Whack her left right centre. Haahahaha... Until she terjatuh.

So kesian... hahahaha

No bengkak also

Not bad ya. Coz she always bully me in tennis. Hehehehe... she so marah, she threw the racquet!! Hahahaha... No laa. Acah only.

Kesian racquet kena throw

Sumore wanna come and whack me!!

After the game, went for a bit of swimming. Just to cool down. So nice the pool. Not too many people although Saturday. Did like 20-30 laps. Hahahahah... yeah right!! 1 lap only. So shy to say.

Only a while in the pool. After that we went in the mall to have dinner. We went to this cafe on top floor called Momento Cafe. Serving Italian food and quite okay. However I will tell about the cafe in the next post laa ya.

Nasi Lemak (cooked at home) - Abu Dhabi, UAE

2008-10-18T00:15:00.017+04:00

Yesterday, I was wondering what to eat. Really scratching my balding head d. Scratch scratch scratch, and I thot why not?? Why not cook the most popular Malaysian dish. It's not that hard. But so many preparation for the dish.

Balding head :((

Nasi in english is Rice, and Lemak with direct translation is Fat. You will probaby get fat fast eating this dish a lot, though it taste really really good.

The main item is the Rice which is cooked in coconut juice. Together with it, I add garlic, ginger, salt, onion, coconut juice, a bit of water and pandan leaves. Then pandan leave gives nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of many South East Asian dish.

Onion

Pandan Leaf

Garlic

Then the rice is normally eaten with some sort of sambal. Sambal means chilli based gravy. For this time, I cooked sambal udang or prawn sambal. It is also eaten with sambal ikan bilis ( anchovies sambal). Sambal ikan bilis is more popular back home as it is cheaper than prawns.

To prepare the ingredients for the sambal, we need to clean the prawns. Try to cook together with the prawn head to enhance the sweetness from the juice (but u dun have to eat the head). Chop some garlic and onions. Boil about 6 stalks of dried chilli. This is to soften it. Then blend the chilli together with 4 cloves of garlic and half a tomato.

Dried Chilli

To cook it, heat about 6 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Then add the sliced onions and garlics. Once the aroma has emerged, put in the blended items. Stir it on medium flame.

Then add 2 tablespoon of fish sauce, 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1cm of belacan ( malaysian cooking item made of dried shrimps, and very smelly but taste damn good). Stir it again.

Tamarind Paste

Add the prawns and stir it. Once the prawns changed colour, add tamarind juice, 3 tablespoon of sugar and some salt.

Walla!! Done..

Then the rice is served with the sambal udang and also other condiments like boiled or sunny side up egg, sliced cucumber. fried peanuts and fried achovies (ikan bilis).

Nasi Lemak with sambal udang and fried fish.

WARNING:

This dish after you eat will make you immediate want to sleep.

Pilot (meant to say Initial post, not my job)

2008-10-17T15:17:00.002+04:00

Hey.. my first ever blog. Din even know wat blog was before. But then it got interesting reading other's blog. It's like knowing exactly their interest and dislike at that moment of time. And u can even 'lock' the feeling forever on the net.

I love to eat. I love food. I can talk about it the whole day. I can look at menu in restaurant (with photos) for long long time. Like reading novel. (I dun like novels anyways). And because of that, I love to pay my visit to the restaurant also (or gerai bawah pokok) and savour all the delicacies. Yumyum..

But since I am now in Abu Dhabi for the last 4 years, not many nice restaurant here la. IF ada pun only lebanese and indian mostly in the shop houses. The other food culture are in the hotels. And the price so so expensive maa. Steak in hotel can cost like Dhs 150-200. Buffet dinner can cost Dhs 180-450. Krazzzy!! Cannot eat everyday la. Otherwise pokai laa.

So I started cooking religiously at home. I been cooking since small (helping mom), but now no choice but to really learn la. It's do or starve laa. Buy many many cook book. Learn about many types of herbs. The characteristic of each ingredients. Very leceh laa. If wanna senang, just campak campak all in the wok only. And pray hard!!

So in this blog, I want to share the food I cook at home or the ones I eat outside. Coz good for are to be shared ( at least the photos la). Wanna belanja everyone to makan2 very susah.

See u in the next post. First food.. The most popular Malaysian Dish.

NASI LEMAK!!!