Trip to Malaysia Part IV (Christmas Party)

I was told by Deryk since I was in Sydney that we will be in charge of the Christmas dinner party for about 15-18 people on 21th December 2008 . Quite excited about what I should make for desserts. Last year (2007), I made Tiramisu and they were very satisfied...so this year I had to make it better... For the party, I think baking cake is not easy due to the amount of serving, as well as an inadequacy of baking equipments in his house. Also,we had to do something that looks professional like plated desserts (cuz mum wants us to serve fine dining service lol) Um...I kept thinking, thinking and thinking...finally, I got it !

One good friend sent me 10 pods of vanilla beans for souvenir to my house in Thailand when I was in Sydney . So it is about the time to use... Let's see what I made :D

Henrik was the very good organizer of the party. When I woke up and saw these things on the table.. I was like.. ''wow". Looks so professional.

The table was set around 3 pm. I was quite excited already.

The menu of the meal.


Haha... Sous chef Pojwaree (Ja)


Christmas tree for Christmas time !

around6.30 pm. The party started.. Our hour' derve are :

Crispy Bruschetta served with tomato concasse & sauteed onion

Creamy tomato-cheese with chives on toasted bagutte

Entree : Sweet & Spicy Oriental Salad : Green Mango, Cucumber, Carrot, Green bean & Coriender dressed in home-made sweet & spicy sauce (by Ja) Deryk created the menu sounds so special..haha

This dish was added ... made by Lydia (maid). Deryk said he is very good at pasta but he was too lazy to cook it.... until now I haven't tried his pasta yet -_-''

Deryk was in charge of the main dishes. (head chef lol). Last time when I was studied with him in WAI, 2007, he was quite slow (haha...sorry deryk) but this time I was very surprised that he is a lot more professional since he got experience from working as a pasta chef in Melbourne.

Main 1 : Chicken Chesseur - chicken pieces braised in white wine and chicken stock.

I haven't tried or heard about this dish before. He told me that it is the french dish. Chesseur is the dish that have mushroom in the sauce. In his recipe calls for cream but we didn't put. I like it, chicken was soft and the sauce was not too rich. (but they look so Chinese by the plate..lol)

Main 2 : Braised Lamb shank : Lamb shank slow-cook in fresh garden herbs and red wine reduction

We braised 8 lamb shanks.. Actually we bought 10 shanks but our pot is not big enough to put all. It took about 3-4 hrs cooking in the oven.

Everyone who had this dish love it.. They said it was so tender and flavoursome. You can tell how they love it by the empty plate after meal.. so clean ..haha


Party time !

Ok...now it was my turn !

I made Vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberry sauce on top. ( It would be a lot better if we use the raspberry sauce but I couldn't find frozen raspberry in supermarket).

At first I wanted to serve panna cotta with plain biscuit but Deryk mentioned about Oreo.. so I think that.. maybe we can use oreo for the base like pie. I didn't use butter in the oreo base cuz don't want any extra fat.. Anyway, I was a bit worried about one thing. And it happened !!! After I pour panna cotta on top of oreo crust, the oreo was floating into the cream.. ''Oh my god! '' I was so nervous at that time.. but Henrik said..no one knows that we didn't intent to do that... Yeah..haha... It still looked great though.


Uncle can't consume sugar so Deryk prepared the cheese platter him. I was quite amazed how beautiful he made the platter. ( in my idea .. ;P)

Everyone likes it ( I think lol)

Such a wonderful Christmas party ! Thanks mum and everyone.

Trip to Malaysia Part III

Canton-i is under the same management of Dragon-i Restaurant, a restaurant that serves Shanghainese cuisine. The concept is similar but Canton-i serves different kind of foods such as BBQ meat, wan tan noodles, rice, congee, dim sum items and desserts. We went to the one at the Lower Ground of The Gardens Midvalley

Part of the frontage of the restaurant is the open kitchen. You can see the BBQ meats and the chefs cooking.

Next to the BBQ open kitchen, A display of pastries is calling people to buy them.

Actually, we was lining up there for 10 minutes, but I just took the photo when there was noboday.

The interior of the restaurant is very nice, with a lil feel of Chinese but also some modern decorations. I was sitting there for about 15 minutes then just noticed that they put a big mirror to create an illusion of a bigger space.


Some of us had Hong Kong coffee and tea mix (Yin yeong) RM5.5 Taste was a bit strange from the one I had before... and it was just lukewarm -_-''

Dragon i juice for Henrik. I asked him to try, very nice, it has a bit of lychee taste.

Henrik's : Stir fired pork belly wantan noodle.. looks very good.

Victor's : Signature prawn wantan noodle RM12.80 He said it was heaven !

The rest of us (Deryk, Nick and I) had Wanton Noodles with honey glazed roast pork and roast pork belly. When they came, we were like ''Wowwww''

The char siu was tender and sweet. Too bad it had too little fat lol. The skin of siu yok was crispy and fatty. I told myself to gave some to Deryk due to the amount of fat..haha.. He was happy though. The noodle, I gave 2 thumbs up ! Just perfect for my liking.

Nick told us the egg tart here is a must !

The pastry is flaky and crispy whilst the egg custard is wobbly, creamy and eggy. But we had the better one.

From Chinese, let's try local food too. I have been to Kanna Curry House last year...and still remember how good it is (I have tried just 1 Bananaleaf here ^ ^)

We went there around 9 pm., there still are some people there.


We choose what we want then they cook freshly for us. Deryk told me that's why here is better than some others

Basically staff come to the table and give you rice, pickles and curries. Any my goodness, he gave us incredible large amount of rice. About 3 big spoons to Deryk. So when my turn, I told him I want only 1 spoon and he was like..''ha?'' hehe.

There are chicken, fish and dal curry...I couldn't tell which one I prefer, I just kept adding 3 of them in my banana leaf lol .


I ordered Pigeon?

Sotong... 2 thumbs up !

We also had another piece of fish as you can see from far in the photo.


Let's photo tell you the story!


People there is very friendly. the one who saw I was taking photo quickly told others to post to my camera :D

Trip to Malaysia Part II

''Old town white coffee'', one of my favourite places in Malaysia. There are so many outlets being opened throughout the country and it’s becoming like franchised fast food. Food and drink being served here are a traditional Malaysian style. Obviously, they is famous for white coffee.

I like the style...looks traditional but trendy.

Menu.

Just write the number the paper, then you will get food.

Since I had coffee at home already, I ordered Old Town white milk tea RM 2.80. Good and not too sweet.

Old Town Iced milk tea and Iced coffee.


Old Town Nasi Lemak Special RM6.80 : Coconut rice with the fried chicken, hard boiled egg, kacang and ikan bilis

Old Town Nasi Rendang Chicken RM9.00 : The fried chicken is replaced by chicken rendang, also take out a hard boiled egg, kacang and ikan bilis.

Old Town homemade Sticky rice RM4.80 : Not the thing you should order.

Kaya butter toast : Healthy cuz the bread is rye and not much butter... but I want fatty version lol

Another lunch, we went to Oriental Pavilion at Section 14, Petaling Jaya for dim sum. I haven been here a couple times for dinner. Food and service are quite nice.

very packed for lunch.

Most of chinese restaurants I go in Malaysia have this thing, quite useful.

Mixed sauce and braised peanut.

The Har Gao, Siew mai, Scallop Siew Mai, Fried prawn fritters in foo chuk, Lor mai kai, Deep-fried bean dumpling, Wu Kok (Deep-fried Yam Croquette) and Stir fried carrot cake.

All was gooddddd !

Char siew : I still dream of this. The meat was nicely caramelised, a little sticky and smoky-sweet with slightly charred bits. The only thing was too little fat lol.

Platter of Roasts: Roasted duck, Tofu and Siew yok.

Roasted duck was juicy but not as good as the one in Crystal Jade, Tofu was the way it should be, sofe and smooth, Siew yok was crispy, fatty and a bit too salty but when eat with tofu, it goes well together

Egg Tarts, a must.

The pastry is gorgeously flaky, and the filling nice and smooth, not too sweet. Melt in your mouth !