Baby French Bean Salad / ' Kwai Tau Miu ' Kerabu

I remembered my grandma used to make this nyonya kerabu with cabbage.  Love the dried prawns , onions and chilli and lemon juice dressing for this kerabu.  I used baby french beans/ ' Kwai Tau Miu ' instead of cabbage.  An appetiser salad that I love. A healthy and delicious salad  if you are a salad person.  A dash of fish sauce will brings out the dressing to a different level though.  I was short of sesame seeds or a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds would add extra flavor to this salad .  

I have not eaten this for sometime now...my grandma used to make them 

for us :)

I can skip my rice with this salad alone :)  yummy!

a tray of this baby french beans /' Kwai Tau Miu ' costs RM4.80

from Jusco

Baby French Bean Salad / ' Kwai Tau Miu ' Kerabu 

300 gm baby french beans/ ' Kwai Tau Miu ' - soaked, wash and cut off ends - blanched in hot boiling water for 8 minutes - take out and soak in ice cold water - drained dry

5 tbsp of dried prawns- soaked , drain off water and pound coarsely

5 bird eyes chillies -sliced

1 small red onions - sliced

1/2 lemon - squeeze juice

1 tbsp of toasted sesame seeds- crushed

1 tsp of fish sauce

Preparation:

Soak the baby french beans in water , wash and cut off ends . Blanched in hot boiling water for 5-6 minutes. Take out and soak in cold water.  Drain dry when the beans are cold.   Place the blanched beans in a serving bowl.  

Marinade together in a small bowl , the pounded dried prawns, chilli slices, onion slices with lemon juice and fish sauce.  Mix well and leave the ingredients to mingle and infuse into a great dressing.

Pour the dressing on the french beans.  Blend all the ingredients together till  the french beans are well coated with the dressing and sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds as garnishing.

Enjoy !

Birthday Dinner @ Kok Thai Restaurant, Ipoh Garden

Had a great dinner with Claire , my former cell group leader, Jennifer , and her husband a month ago at Kok Thai Restaurant, Ipoh Garden.  It was supposed to be a get together dinner , for I have not seen Jennifer for ages, but to discovered that it was Jennifer's husband birthday...thus I ordered something a little special for the dinner...plus a birthday mee for the birthday baby :)   Claire recommended this dish above ' Hoi Sin Claypot '  and the  'Woo Tau Kow Yoke ' and Jennifer recommended the ' Seafood Assam Curry ' ( birthday boy favorite dish )  and WB and myself picked  'Kangkong In Claypot ' and the restaurant special mee " Sum Si Meen '  .  Not only the food was delicious...the fellowship was great too !   Looking forward to more fellowship dinner in the coming months :)

Seafood Assam Curry

 'Woo Tau Kow Yoke ' ( Braised Yam with Pork Belly slices in red fermented beancurd )

Claypot Kangkong....thumbs up for this dish !

former cell group leader Jennifer and husband Wai Kok (Jen's husband)

 a happy family ( God's family ) :)

Enjoy !

Kok Thai Restaurant (國泰酒樓)

56-64 Lebuh Medan Ipoh, 

Bandar Baru Ipoh, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Tel:  +60 5-546 8407

Simple And Easy Chicken Stew

When I am lazy to cook anything fanciful...this is what will be served for dinner :)  Simple and easy chicken stew. I used drumsticks instead of whole chicken.  Why I say it is easy ,  coz you just need to pan sear the drumsticks with garlic and olive oil, then add hot water, add dried mixed herbs, carrots and potato, tomato and simmer till it the ingredients are tender soft.  Add sea salt and tada , a flavorful and well balanced stew is ready for serving.  For me this is comfort food :)

Simple And Easy Chicken Stew  - WB Kitchen

Ingredients:

4 drumsticks - remove skin
2 cloves of garlic - sliced
1 tbsp of olive oil

1 carrot - cut into 1" length
2 tomatoes - quartered
2 potatoes - quartered
1/2 tbsp of dried mixed herbs
a pinch of sea salt for taste

Preparation:

Pan seared the four drumsticks with chopped garlic on a deep fry pan till lightly brown on the outside and 3/4 cooked.  Add 1.5 cup of water to the chicken and once the water boils, add in all the cut veggies and dried mixed herbs. Close pan with a lid and simmer under medium low fire for 35 minutes. Once the ingredients are all tender soft , add sea salt to taste.  Off heat and serve hot.

Enjoy !

One Of The Best Bak Kut Teh In Town

Wild Boar and I were looking for a good Bak Kut Teh for our lunch last Sunday.  Of course , over here  in Ipoh , there are many stalls selling Bak Kut Teh but they are not as good as the Klang Bak Kut Teh :).  We decided to try this stall in Central Restaurant . After driving around for a parking ( 20 minutes) before we found one parking lot right in front of the restaurant. We almost wanted to give up eating at this place but thank God, we found one right in front of the shop :)  

We ordered a portion for two persons and wow, it was a big portion with lots of ingredients ....all parts of the Piggy is in it...intestine, stomach, ribs, belly and trotters...hahahaha and I asked for extra beancurd skin (foo chok) and lots of spring onions and coriander ( this is what gives the bak kut teh the extra oomph )  The soup was flavorful and I would consider this bak kut teh as one of the best in town.  The whole claypot of bak kut teh for two person costs RM18 with two bowls of rice.  Extra serving of rice would be RM1.00 per bowl.  We ordered two extra rice LOL! the bak kut teh was so good that I forgot about lesser intake of carbo and tucked in two bowls of rice.  Yummy ! If you are in town, do drop by this bak kut teh stall in Central Restaurant ...it is one of the best  I have thus eaten in Ipoh.  You can pick and choose your choices of meat and parts for your bak kut teh.  This is my personal opinion that it is one of the best I have eaten.  Your opinion may differs from mine though :)

I love the trotters the best  !

she can't help seeing us slurping down her bak kut teh soup

like nobody business...thus she brought over another 

extra bowl of soup for free......!

Cafe Central Restaurant,

Junction at Jalan Leong Sin Nam and Jalan Cowan

Enjoy

TCS Ex-Classmates (1976) Meet Up @ Palong Coffee House @ Kinta Riverfront Hotel, Ipoh

Meeting up with Tarcisian Convent ex-classmates of 1976  at Palong Coffee House @ Kinta Riverfront Hotel was FUN  . Not only we piled up our tummy with good food , we teared over jokes and gosh it was a real fun day ! Can you imagine filling the tummy with endless servings of food at the buffet table and later shaking our tummy so much with their ' ham sapp ' jokes.  Some of us really never change...still the same ole us...heehee . 

This meet up was for one of our dear classmate who was back from New York after having resided and worked in NY for 2 over decades :)  Many from KL came back just on a day trip to have this meet up. Thank you to all who turned up for this reunion lunch.  Those who could not attend last Saturday , we miss you guys too.  Looking forward to many more reunions and thanks to Rosalind for organising such a successful one in Ipoh.  

my New Yoker classmate...haha we both love our salt and pepper hair color...

as the saying goes.....grow old gracefully 

many serving of these delectable food

clockwise...Beef Goulash,  Curry Mutton , Samosa, Buttered Fish, Vegetarian Lasagna

Mini Pizza....nom nom

a few types of Malaysian salad - kerabu style

hot sour soup,  and the delicious Beef Goulash

the buttered fish was good, and the curry mutton was the most after 

for the day and the vegetarian lasagna

Mini Pizza and Samosa

Desserts was strawberry ice cream and chocolate ice cream,

cakes and apple crumbles tart and shaved ice with lots of nuts and 

red beans...with red sugar syrup....slurrp

*                *              *

Baby Octopus Salad With Tangy Hot Mint Dressing

Even though I know the fact that octopus has high cholesterol value, I  still use them in salad such as this :p This is a easy to prepare salad . First ,I will pickle the raw shallots slices, bird's eye chillies and chopped garlic and young mint leaves with calamansi juice and fish oil and a pint of salt for half hour.  Then pour over the cooked baby octopus and mix them well.  Serve this dish as an appetizer or side dish...I am sure you and family will enjoy this appetizer.   I DO ! :) 

to make dressing , pickle together shallots, garlic, chillies and mint leaves

with calamansi juice and fish oil

 appetizing dish to serve as appetizer or side dish..

Yummy !

Baby Octopus With Tangy Mint Dressing  - WB Kitchen

Ingredients

6 pieces of baby octopus - steam it for 8 mins over hot boiling steamer - cut into bite size pieces

Dressing Ingredients:  ( mix all the ingredients together and pickle for half hour )

4 calamansi - extract juice

a handful young mint leaves - you can chopped them but I prefer not chopped

4 shallots - slice thinly

2 cloves of garlic - chopped

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp of fish oil

juices from the steamed octopus

Preparation:

Clean the octopus and drain off water.  Heat up steamer and when water is boiling, put int the octopus and steam for 8 mins. Off heat and take out the cooked octopus and placed into a mixing bowl.  Keep aside the juices from the octopus .

Mix the dressing ingredients together and leave it to pickled for at least half hour.  Pour dressings over the cooked octopus and mix well.  Serve chilled  if you like a chilled one and serve as appetizer or as a side dish.

Enjoy!