OX Tail Rendang

Aa made ox tail rendang yesterday. Quite an unusual selection of meat to go with a sauce that you would normally pair with a chunky meat. He used the asian gourmet series of sauces which tasted not bad actually. It managed to just hit the rendangness that I was hoping for but then most who know me well enough will know that I rarely go for a dish that is savoury and at the same time sweet e.g. sweet and sour pork. After so many years my taste is still the same maybe it will change for other tastes in my life too.

Anyway thanks Aa. Going to miss the bachelor meals when C comes home finally tomorrow!!.. The dishes are piling LOL!!!

OX Tail Rendang, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Cafezique - Breakfast with the Girls

Got a treat from the girls today. I was intending to go to Macs to satisfy my unhealthy food craving but Mich decided to check out this cafe in Partick. I used to stay there and have always been familliar with Delizique. Since its renovation sometime last year, they have expanded to include a cafe as well. I had high expectations for this place because Aa has been talking about since my 2nd year.

Had a hot chocolate to start off.. Alas.. I was dissapointed.. not chocolatey enough.. it felt really thin. At least I could taste the chocolate but that was about it.

For brunch, I had the big fry up. A typical scottish breakfirst consisting of tomato, baked beans sausages, potato scones, bacon mushrooms and black pudding which i substituted with a poach egg. On top of that another 2 scrambled eggs to go with it. It was ordinary but satisfying.

PY has crab linguine. I wished I ordered this instead. It was fantastic. U could taste the crab sauce with each mouthfull of linguine. In someway, I feel challenged to make this dish haha. Dosen't look too difficult does it? Its all a matter of procuring some good crab meat. ;)



Cafezique
--------------------
66 Hyndland Street
Glasgow G11 5PT
Tel: 0141 339 7180

Lobster Pasta

Hmmm.... Lobster??!!!!...... Yup..... How can a student afford lobster?? Well... The poor student can't but the working doctor sure can. Its not expensive actually. Aa got each lobster from Lidl for only 5 pounds. The downside is it was frozen rock solid. That means you can probably expect a drop in meat texture and taste quality. For 5 pounds aiyah what can you expect haha. The intention was to make chinese lobster noodle but since Aa is better trained in western cooking, he's decided to make a lobster pasta.

So basically, what he did was defrost the lobster. Cut off the claws and split the body into halves. Give the claws a good whack. Melt some butter and basically just toss the lobster in it till its warmed throughout.

Here's the head going in . In the mean time, he's got some thin linguine boiling.

There we go, lobster pasta. It taste quite nice haha YOu definately can't beat a freshly cooked lobster pasta but the experience of eating lobster is good enough for now.

Its nice when Aa cook cos that way I can take more pictures and show you more of the prepatroy steps. Something which I can't do when I am cooking alone.

IMG_9427, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Curry Chicken - A1 Instant Chicken Curry Sauce

Well well... back to home cooked food again. Its curry chicken tonight.. I love cooking curry chicken cos its easy to make and its so yummy (haha subjective ah.. ) and its able to pair with so many types of starch such as rice, noodles, naan bread and roti prata/chanai. Chicken was on offer 2 pounds for 10 pieces of drumsticks . Wu hua bo? (worth it or not?)

Anyway... I almost resorted to using Patak's sauces today because I thought I had ran out of sauces but was pleasantly suprised to find my stash of good old sauces still kept in my cupboard. That's good hehe means more dishes to try out in the coming weeks.

A1 is a brand that I have tried before but it was curry powder and you have to mix it with water to get the paste. Therefore, this time round I was delighted to find a paste in the packet rather than the DIY powder mix.

I made coconut rice as well (Nasi lemak) but it wasn't as lemak as I hope for it to be but still Aa enjoyed it. This has to be one of the better curries that I have made and its attributed mainly to the sauce.

Ingredients
----------------------
1 packet A1 instant chicken curry sauce
1 packet of chicken approx 1 kg
Tumeric powder
2 onions
4 medium potatos
1 tomato
handful of curry leaves

heat up some oil. In the meantime, rub some tumeric powder all over the chicken. be careful here,you don't want any tumeric on your clothes. Chop the onions and throw it into the pan. Pan fry till the aroma comes out. Drop the chicken in next. Pan fry a little till you get a nicely browned (not chou tar aka burnt) skin. Pour in the mix. Add in the adviced quantity of water and coconut milk on the back of the packing. Throw in the curry leaves potato Simmer for about 45 mins. Lastly throw in the tomatos.

For the nasi lemak, use a proportion of 3/4 coconut milk and 1/4 water to cook the rice. pince of salt and sugar plus some mince ginger. Remember to stir the rice before putting it into the cooker.

*use coconut powder if you don't have coconut milk. worst case scenario, use full fat milk.

Complimentary shot!

Curry Chicken, originally uploaded by jiapui.

See Woo BBQ Steamboat

Happy Birthday Big G.!!!.
Big G celebrated his birthday yesterday at See Woo. See Woo is one of probably 3 places in Glasgow where you can find steamboat meals. I believe their selection is the best. I did not eat that night but from what I observed, there was a quite a selection of meats, unlimited prawns, exotic seafood like crabs, bamboo clams, top Shells and even crab.. All these for 15.50 per head and students get a 10% i think? I don't know haha. Only had a drink which was given a 30% discount if you ate at the steam boat section.

I should consider heading there someday with Aa and C when she comes back.

Scampi Dinner

Scampi is the local name for fried breaded prawns. I paired it together with some salad that I bought and borrowed a tomato from Aa to go alone with it haha.. Sounds pathetic that I borrowed hahaha so he gave it to me in the end. The scampis lack the fresh prawn taste and whatever taste was in there probably comes from seasoning. The pairing of a fried meat with a salad and fries really reminds me of a meal that I had in France

Scampi Dinner, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Dinner with Aa at Ashoka

Its nice having a flatmate who's working and likes to blanjah me. Maybe its because C is gone and I am his proxy "girlfriend" haha. Anyway, Aa's got a 50% off voucher that we decided should be put to good use before it went to waste.

We had some poppadums aka indian keropok with some onion chutney paired with a mayo-red sauce concoction. That was followed by a starter platter for 2 which was basically a munchie box rearranged on a plate. The good thing is the items are all perfectly fried . The down side is they were regular items except for a couple of lamb kebabish.

We order this amazing lamb curry. It was the typical lamb curry sauce taste but felt more robust in texture. The meat was tender and peeled easily off the bone. It was spicey but not unbearable for me to not like it.

In addition, we ordered some naans to go with the rest of the meat dishes. The last dish here is a tandoori platter consisting of chicken parts, lamb and 1 single prawn!!!!. Can u believe it 1 Single tandoori prawn bUT that single prawn turned out to the best item for the night. It reminded me of BBQ prawns but with the tandoori flavour coated over it. It was quite pathetic though and Aa and I ended up sharing half a mozzel each lol.

TBBQ Sauce Chicken Wings

Hmm ... Everyone loves chicken wings. Master your own set of chicken wings and you will be ready to impress , hassle free and at a low cost.
I got these huge chicken wings from Tesco. My GOODNESS was what I muttered when i saw these testosterone enhanced chicken wings. They were 1.5 x bigger than the morrison's chicken wings la..
Somehow, in the UK, chicken wings are one of the cheapest parts of the chicken. Breast is the most expensive (yucks, I don't like dry meat) My box contains 10 wings.. So it was 5 each between me and Aa.

Ingredients
------------------------
Box of chicken less than 2 pounds
50% Tomato ketchup
50% Smokey BBQ Sauce
4 Table spoon of Sugar.
Lemon Juice

Defrost Chicken from freezer if frozen. I normally take it out before i leave the house and it is thawed by the time i get home. Dejoint it if u prefer and its probably the best thing to do for finger food parties. Mix in the marinate. Let the "zhap" bath the wings for about 45 mins (For best effects leave overnight in fridge). Turn the over up to 220 degree celcius and bake for approximately 20 mins. Serve with mash or chips because this is my Ang moh Style chicken wings

*Aa's Tip - Pour some lemon juice over the wings before throwing them in the oven. This helps to make the skin crispier.
*Girls you can do it!!!!

A simple lunch

A simple lunch was what I had. Crisp, Bread and Water all for 2 pounds from Marks and Spark.
Wasn't as tasty as subway but it filled my stomach. Given a choice, I would choose mee pok ta or chicken rice anytime. I like things simple... Do you ?

Asimplelunch, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Melon with Raspberry Icecream

Its either I am too free or I am too bored. Aa suggested we finish up the melon that has been in the fridge for 1 month. I was extremely skeptical about considering the last rock melon that we ate was really mushy. When I finally cut this melon open, I was shock to find it rock hard. Haha. The lack of sweetness was in a way good as it helped to allow the sweetness of the ice cream to take over the taste whilst providing a nice contrasting texture to the softness of the ice cream.

The dessert's simple to make, in fact you can even eat it deconstructed. All I did was cut the melon in half, skin it and started giving it edges (hehe part of my surgical skills training). Next put some ice cream on to it. I used Green and Black's Raspberry swirl vanilla ice cream (was on offer 2 pounds only from Tesco). Lastly, I slit 2 strips of honey dew skin for deco. Gordon Ramsey will definately disagree with this... why bother putting something on a plate that you can't eat.. Maybe next time I will use some lemon peels and grate some lemon zest over it.