German, Italian and Chinese fusion...

It's a brand new Saturday and since we both had no pre-planned activities going on, we decided to cook.
Brought Brownie for a walk to the sundry shop, and got some onions and an apple.

Within an hour and a half, we came up with 3 dishes. Let me present to you:

a) German sausages with caramelized onions and apples
b) Chinese-Italian spinach with garlic
c) Italian inspired tomato rice

 Hubby went back to Kuching, Sarawak and brought back a bottle of Meica German sausages. Searched for recipes online and found that most of the German sausages are accompanied by sauerkraut. Since we do not have that, we searched for some simpler recipes and found some with apples and onions.
We got the main ingredients and voila whipped up this dish. I did not follow the measurements and added some Italian herbs, beef stock, apple cider and result tasted awesome!

German sausages with caramelized onions and apples

The second dish is typically a Chinese dish, spinach with garlic. However when we were in Rome, we were also served spinach with garlic, but the spinach was rather bitter. Hubby decided to modify this dish. He first stir fry the garlic and spinach in the wok until soft (add brown sugar and salt), and then transferred them (without water) into the frying pan, and added the herbs and black pepper.

Chinese-Italian Spinach with garlic

The Italian inspired tomato rice is something like the tomato stuffed rice we made previously (see here), but this time we added mushrooms, some leftover smoked ham and of course cheddar cheese.

Italian inspired tomato rice

Now you know why both of us are growing sideways:)

Xuan Feng Restaurant

'Daddy said every time when he reads your blog, it's always about food'...mom told me on the phone a couple of days ago.

Well, what can I say? I love food:)

Xuan Feng Restaurant is located at Krystal Point. Prior its opening, I've been telling MM that we should go once they're opened for business. So we made plans and both of us ended up there last night.

From across the road

 Simple, yet cozy interior with about 10-12 tables inside.

Interior

Free wifi available

The price of the food was quite reasonable, I'd say.

Menu

The 2 items below were essential in enhancing the spiciness of my ramen..

Chilli powder and sambal

I ordered the Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen. The soup base was full of flavour, and the portion was just nice for me. This ensemble contains black fungus, char siew, bamboo shoots, spring onions, egg and chilli spices.

 Although I still prefer Goku Raku Ramen (which is all the way in Gurney Paragon), I would come here again for a quick fix.

Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen (Small)

MM ordered the Xuan Feng Ramen.

Xuan Feng Ramen (Small)

The total bill came up to RM 26.90, with service tax (5%) but no government tax.

I think I will come back again, this time to try the 3 cup chicken (San Bei Chi).

Food and board games..Oh what fun! (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my previous post....

After lunch, we headed back to JJ & Elsie's place for board games. It was about 2.30 pm and we had 6 other friends who joined us for board games making a total of 11 of us. I couldn't take a picture where all of us were intently playing, but here's a snapshot.

We played The Resistance. This game is something like Mafia, but unlike Mafia this game does not have a detective or a doctor. In this game (could be up to 10 players), the mission leader is to choose a team to go on a mission to topple the government. The team can be made up of both spies and the resistance, but the team leader will not know who the spies are, unless he/she is a spy. There are 5 rounds all together.

Shaun explaining the rules of the game

At about 4 pm, we paused for tea. JJ & Elsie prepared Creme Brulee for us. Thanks you two:)
Earlier that morning, I had the opportunity to use their blow torch to caramelized the sugar topping.

The fun part...yee haaa!

Didn't dare to put too much sugar....

All mine:)

Yummylicious!

11 of us continued playing until almost 6.30 pm. The spies won most of the time; the resistance won once at the last game.  The rest of them left after the game, and 5 of us (yeah..the same 5 from lunch) went to Karen Kitchen for dinner, and another round of board game...only this time we played 7 Wonders. This is my favourite game so far, although I'm usually one with the least victory points...:(

Overall, I had the most fun and amazing food and board game session this Deepavali.

I'll blog about Karen Kitchen the next time...

Till then..

Have a great week!

Food and board games..Oh what fun! - Part 1

So, it was 2012's Deepavali and it was smack right in the middle of the week.
Since I am unable to go back to my hometown, and DH was back at his hometown, I stayed put here in Penang and spent an awesome day with my cell group members.

Initially we wanted to try out ECCO Restaurant in Georgetown but it was closed. So we ended up at Sun Yoon Kee Restaurant at Cintra Street, recommended by JJ.

Food was delicious, and portion was just nice.

Pork spare ribs (RM 12)

Stir-fry kailan with garlic (RM 8)

Just look at those mouth-watering prawns....nom nom!

Sun Yoon Kee's signature tofu (RM 10)

Salted vegetable and duck soup has always been my favourite. My family has this soup every Chinese New Year, and those days (many years ago) we used to have 2 bowls of rice to go with this soup.

Sun Yoon Kee's salted vegetable-duck soup is rather on the sourish side, but I kinda like it. There are peppercorns in the soup which brings out the flavour of the soup.

Salted vegetable and duck soup(Kiam Chai ark) - RM 14

 Before we ordered the dishes, JJ told us that Sun Yoon Kee is famous for their siu bak (roast pork).
Indeed so..the outer part of the siu bak is crispy whereas the meat is tender and juicy.

Siu bak and Char Siu (RM 16)

 This was the last dish we ordered, and we thought that we had ordered fish alone, but to our surprise this came with hor fun. According to the boss, this is their signature dish. I felt that the fish slices were tasteless (saltless). Good thing the gravy balanced up the entire dish..

Fried fish with hor fun (RM 20)

The total bill came up to RM 89 (including 5 bowls of rice and 1 refillable pot of tea). Cheap cheap!

If you want to pay a visit to this restaurant, here's the address:

 Part 2 coming right up.....

Fridge magnets and other collectibles..

I love fridge magnets, especially those representing famous icons of the countries they come from. Seeing them on my fridge always make me happy, for some reason. It must be the memories of that particular trip, or fond thoughts of the person who had given them to me.

I got both magnets and key chains from one of the souvenir stalls outside Pisa. There's the Baptistery, Duomo and the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa on the right.

We were advised to get souvenirs from Florence rather than Rome/Milan/Venice as they were more expensive there. This Venetian mask magnet was purchased at San Lorenzo Market, Florence. The 'face' was so fragile that I worried it would be smashed by the time we arrive back home.

From Santorini, I got these 2 lovelies for myself, while the rest (sadly, no pictures) had been given away to family members and colleagues. I wished I've gotten more souvenirs from Santorini, as they were all so beautiful (and costly too..).

This is a miniature house/building in Santorini. There are many of such miniature clay souvenirs..but not cheap, about 4 euros each. The other picture is a plaque which we purposely bought to remember this fantastic place. Read about my Santorini trip here.

Next are some items we got from Athens, which we bought from Corina at Plaka.

These are called 'matia' or evil eye. They can be found at every souvenir shop in Athens, some in the form of a key chain, some on bracelets, etc. I received my first 'matia' (picture on the right) when I was back in secondary school, from my cousin who got it from Athens. I don't believe in good luck charms, I just think that they make good souvenirs.

From London, I got this London bus magnet with all the iconic landmarks in it.

This was my first London magnet which I got from WH when she was there for her conference.

Got this as a souvenir from my boss when he went for a holiday in Hong Kong last year..

My mom got me this when she went to Korea 2 years ago..

Got this from SS when she was on a business trip to India early this year...

Told SY to get me a magnet when he went to US for a month last year and he got me this...

J came back from Shanghai 2 weeks ago and got me this:)

Since I go back to visit my in-laws every year in Kuching, Sarawak, I sure make it a point to get some magnets to adorn my fridge. The one on the left depicts the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building.

               

Got this from one of the stalls opposite Komtar, Penang. I got 3 of these, which I gave 2 to Maria (the owner of Villa Rose Santorini).

I have other magnets, each with a 'history' of its own, but it will take too long to write about them here.