Watercress Vegetarian Soup

Watercress is an aquatic vegetable. As far as I know it is a fast growing plant and free from pesticide. So, it's safe to consume. Watercress contains significant amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C. According to Wikipedia, many benefits from eating watercress are claimed, such as that it acts as a mild stimulant, a source of phytochemicals and antioxidants, a diuretic, an expectorant, and a digestive aid. It also appears to have cancer-suppressing properties. It is widely believed to help defend against lung cancer.

Once a while mama will boil this soup for all of us. She applies the trasitional way to boil the soup with pork ribs and red dates. This is her version.

However, for me, I've never cook watercress soup. Until last Sunday, suddenly I thought of want to try it out, but using my own style - the vegetarian version. :)

Here it is. It looks quite colorful, right? Actually hubby and I just ate up the soup with watercress and carrot. The rest ingredients are just used to enhance the sweetness to the soup base. Never ever think that vegetarian soup is tasteless. With all the ingredients I added to the soup base, I'm proud to say that it's so flavorful. Not only that, It contains the natural taste and the original sweetness without any single food additives. Wanna learn how to cook it? Here's my home recipe.

Ingredients:
1. a bunch of watercress, wash and cut into 2" length.
2. 1 corn, cut into 4 pcs
3. half of a small yam bean, cut into 6 pcs
4. 1 carrot, cut into bite size.
5. 8 red dates, wash and cut open.
6. 1250ml of water

Seasoning:
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:
1. Bring the water to boil in a pot. Add in corn, carrot, yam bean and red dates.

2. Simmer under medium heat for 45 minutes.

3. Add in watercress and simmer the soup for another 25 minutes.

4. Add seasoning and serve hot.

San Li Cafe @ Chai Leng Park

There are many times when we found ourselves wondering what to eat on a typical Saturday evening, especially when we travel back from SP. Normally we'd have our dinner in Chai Leng Park, or Autocity, but sometimes we just can't think of a nice place to go. Any suggestion out there?

On several occasion, we stopped by Chai Leng Park San Li Cafe. It was supposed to serve some Taiwanese style food but the menu has been localized. We have tried some of their varieties and we think the food is average.

yam and orange milk shakes


strawberry milk shake and ice blended orange


Fried rice in Thai style with tiny little shrimps, egg, salad, onion and spicy chicken. It's one of the better dishes served in this cafe although it's been deteriorated a bit over the years.


Yang Zhou fried rice, normal only.

Fried wanton mee, taste wise is good, with lots of ingredients like fried wanton, Holland peas, choy sum, prawns, squids, and char siew. Just one simple mistake they've made. The noodle is a little bit hard. If it's springy, then this dish will be perfect to eat with sambal balacan.

Udon mee, ok but maybe too reliant on ajinomoto? Quite a lot of ingredients also like bamboo shoots, assorted fish balls, big prawns, mushrooms, and sprinkle with spring onions.


Deep fried chicken rolls. Hmm...not recommended to order.


Mixed fry - basically just the fried chicken. Chicken was merinated with herbs.


Fried chicken

Overall, the place is good place to go if you want a normal or decent meal.

Bangkok Lane Mee Goreng

I can still remember the episode where Jason from 阿贤人情味 came down to Penang and visited the Bankok Lane mee goreng. The mee goreng stall is actually located inside Sheng Li coffee shop and is run by an Indian who spoke some Hokkien. Through out the show, he repeatedly say this is the best mee goreng in Malaysia! Real or not?? Makan King and Queen definitely cannot take his words for granted, we have to taste it ourselves!

One sunny day, Makan King & Queen hopped into our tiny car and drove down to Burma road to try out "the best mee goreng". Yup, we saw the Indian guy who was on the TV all right...now lets get down to business.

To try out their variety, we ordered a plate of Mee Rebus and a plate of Mee Goreng.

The mee rebus came first...hmmmm, why taste so so only? The sotong got some smell...and the mee rebus is not spicy and sour enough. I expect it to be much better. :((


Next came the famous mee gerong, lol....hmmm...why taste normal only? Though the mee goreng was lavishly laden with fried sotong, we think that the mee gerong is not up to our expectation as well.

WHERE IS THE BEST MEE GORENG IN MALAYSIA?

New World Park - Jalan Jalan, Makan Makan

My hubby and I love to go out jalan-jalan and perhaps makan-makan along the way. When we visit "Chou Tian Yang" Pet Shop again last Sunday, we stopped by New World Park to have some tit-bits. We wasn't hungry at the time so we ordered something light.


We went to the New World Park food court..


and ordered an Ice-kacang to cool ourselves down.


And a plate of Rojak for tit-bits.

We like the new world park food court as it is not so hot like other hawker center...and some of the food there are quite nice. What do you think?

Dinner @ Old Town White Coffee Autocity

Every weekend when we travel back from SP, we'll find some place to dine in before going back to watch our favourite One Million Star show. During our last trip hubby suggested to go to Old Town White Coffee. We heard that the nasi lemak and curry mee is quite nice, so we stopped by again at Autocity.

Both of us ordered Nasi Lemak Special...yum yum


The Sambal tumis is quite nice with a fried chicken and papadum which makes it "special".

Hubby ordered organic wheat grass honey,


I ordered coffee lava 2 scoops....

You can really taste the rich coffee flavour which is added to the ice cream.

Overall, it cost us RM25++ for the dinner.

Restaurant Loke Thiem Hakka @ Patani Jaya, SP

Not many places to dine in when we are back in Sungai Petani. In fact, we always revisit the same places. Loke Thiem Hakka Restaurant is one of our favorite restaurant. They serve a lot of small dishes which we normally cook at home. The old lady boss always emphasise that they only serve 家乡小菜. What a humble aunty.

This time hubby and I brought FIL with us for a simple dinner there. FIL is a bit down recently, so we got to give him some sort of counselling to motivate him. :P Got mission some more, yea... Instead of ordering the same kind of dishes, this time we tried something simple and different.

For the vegie, we ordered sweet potato shoots stir fry in sambal belacan. Why sweet potato shoots? Reason is simple cuz it's without herbicide. It's like my home cooked dish. :P

Next, we had this pineapple chicken. The chicken was deep fried before stir fried with pineapple sauce. With the pineapple and onion, it's very appetizing.

Lastly, we had this one big piece of their home made soft tofu. It was deep fried, topped with special soy sauce, and garnish with crispy dried shrimps and spring onion.

Overall the dinner including drinks just cost us about RM32. Quite a reasonable price.

Turmeric Pork Slice

Turmeric is widely used in post natal confinement recipes. It acts as an antibiotic and promotes a healthy circulatory system. Besides, it is an important spice used in Indian curry. Sometimes it is used as a coloring agent too.

Being a working lady, I always find shortcuts to cook my own dishes. I stole my mama's turmeric pork slice recipe not long ago. :) Instead of following mama using fresh turmeric juice to marinate the meat, I have cutshort the steps by using turmeric powder. I know, the effects may not be the same as the fresh turmeric root, but I have no choice. :(

Here's how I cook the dish. I'm satisfied with the first trial result. :P It's aromatic and delicious. My carnivor hubby loves it too. Hurray!

Ingredients:

1. 300g lean pork.

2. 3 to 4 tbsp of Canola oil.

3. Seasoning: 1 tbsp Ghee Hiang sesame oil, 2 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 flat teaspoon of turmeric powder and a dash of pepper.

Method:

1. Thinly slice the lean pork, marinate and season it for at least 15 minutes.

2. Heat Canola oil in the wok, and fry the marinated pork slices.

3. Keep on frying until the meat slices' edge turn a bit darker yet it is not burnt. For reference, see the texture and the colour in the above photo.

Dinner @ Sea Palace Restaurant

2 weeks ago hubby and I brought my parents to Sea Palace Restaurant for dinner. Every year, we'd treat my parents for a dinner as a form of gift for father's day and mother's day besides Ang Pau.

Sea Palace restaurant is located in Bagunan Lip Sin, Taman Pekaka. We heard that the food is not bad over here so we hopped in to give it a try :)

We ordered a total of 5 dishes for 4 person...

First is fried mixed vegetable (罗汉上斋)

The mixed vegetable is delicious and well done.

Second is stewed home-made bean curd (干贝豆腐)

The taufu is quite silky and yummy....nice & fragrant with nice sauce, love it.

Third is the garlic chilli steamed prawns, this dish is not in the menu but recommended by the waitress..

The prawn dish is so-so only, because the simple ingredient didn't bring out the taste.

Next is the deep fried vegetable roll (凤凰卷), my favourite dish of all...quite different from ordinary spring roll...taste really good, definitely recommended!

Last is the crispy mango sauce chicken (芒果酥炸鸡), taste not bad...but nowadays we can't eat too much of heavy stuff already :P...

Total it cost us RM85.37 for the dinner. The price is quite reasonable for 4 person with 5 dishes.

Stir Fry Winged Beans With Sambal

Winged bean is also known as goa bean or "kacang botol". It provides a source of carbohydrates, protein, vitamin A and other vitamins.

According to Answers.com, almost all parts of this plant are edible. The green pods, tubers, and young leaves can be used as vegetables, and the flowers can be added to salads. The dry seeds are similar to soybeans and can be used for extracting edible oil, feeding animals, and making milk and traditional Southeast Asian foods such as tempeh, tofu, and miso. Flour from the winged bean can also be used as a protein supplement in bread making.

At home, normally my mama will boil it in water. Don't forget to add a pinch of salt, cuz this keeps the beans green and freshly looks. It's serve with home made sambal belacan. This is so called ulam. Besides, it is perfect for stir fry. It tastes good when it's fried with pounded chilies, shallots, garlics, dried shrimps and belacan. Try not to over-cook, otherwise it will lose its crunchy texture.