Food in Kuala Lumpur

In Kuala Lumpur, we visited Lot 10 Hutong Food court for lunch on our first day. It is situated in Bukit Bintang along the streets of shopping malls.

Apparently,  all the best street food stalls are clustered in this food court. One can't miss it with all the sign boards just outside the food court. We had a good lunch and it was hard to choose what to eat.

For dinner one evening, we walked over to Jalan Alor where there was a street long of open air restaurants.  Most of the eateries offered the same dishes. There were also stalls selling fruits and durians.

We settled at one table and ordered satays and noodles and tofu stew and rice etc... From our table, we could see all the actions in the kitchen.

After dinner, my mum bought some local fruits. A1 loves dragonfruit so we bought two. The fruit seller made us try the small apples. They were very crunchy and sweet. Mum bought some too.

Another evening, my mum and I went to Jalan Alor after dinner and had durians. 

We bought fruits again at Chinatown. We all love mango and these mangoes were very good.

Like Singapore, it is so easy to get fresh fruits.

Just Kunafa

Seb went to Dubai last week for a last minute meeting. He took the flight on Thursday, had his meeting on Friday, met an ex-colleague for dinner and took the 3am flight arriving at CDG airport on Saturday morning.

 I told him to try and get me a box of baklawa. I love these middle east desserts. He was thoughtful enough to get t-shirts for the boys and even a fridge magnet for his mother-in-law despite the busy schedule.

When I received this beautiful box of sweet delights, I thought of sharing with friends. There were too many and the kids did not like them. However once I started eating them, I could not stop. I am going to finish this box by myself. Won't do good to my waistline but I just couldn't resist them!

If you go Dubai, go visit this shop and try these. They are really really good.

Food from ah yi

Gosh. This post was in draft mode for months and I just realised that.

Ah Yi, the boys' ex-nanny gave us food each time we met up. In May, she made rice dumplings and chinese buns. 

Rice dumpling (Zongzi) is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat festival. 

I thought my boys would not like the chinese buns (Bao) so I just took one from her. I let the boys try it and they liked it. We three had to share that one big bun.

When it was the boys' birthday, she would make them apple sauce, braised chicken thighs and chinese dumpling (Jiaozi). Last year A1 mentioned that food was not a present. Ah Yi took note. This year for A1's birthday, she bought him a Magic treehouse storybook. A1 was delighted.

For me, I prefer Ah Yi's home cook food as gifts. They are organic and nothing beats home made food. 

Chouquettes et Café

A1 comes home after school and does not stay in the after school care since the beginning of the year. My big boy wants to be independant and enjoys the short walk home with some older schoolmates. Since he is having his afternoon tea at home, I am trying to bake twice a week. I want to cut down on store bought cakes and biscuits.

Usually, I make banana cake, chocolate cookies, yogurt cake or crepes.

Recently, I made chouquettes with the Thermomix and the kids loved them. It was easy to make..  

These chouquettes go well with a latte. For Seb's birthday, the family and I bought him a coffee machine. It makes espresso the way my man likes it. 

Seb can make mousse out of milk with this machine. Once a while, I would ask him to prepare me a latte in the afternoon.

 He makes me coffee and I would like to make him vegan chouquettes. I have the receipe, just waiting for inspiration and courage*.

* The last vegan chocolate cake I made was not tasty at all.

Food note

As mentioned before, in french school, all children have the same lunch. This is the weekly menu of the department 78 we live in. There is a starter, a main with side, milk product like cheese and ending with dessert. 

The children are encouraged to try new food. They can ask for more serving if there is extra after everyone is served. On the thurday of that week, there was raclette. I was sure the boys would enjoy their lunch and they did!

A1 is choosy with cake and biscuits. He like me, does not like chocolate. He does like chouquettes. On new year's eve, my friend brought chouquettes over. She told me it was easy to make them with the thermomix. I found the receipe online and tried it out. Indeed, it was easy. The boys finished them up over dinner and next day's breakfast. There were 4 leftovers as they had the least sugar on them.

While writing this post, I found the receipe in english (non Thermomix). Try out this easy to do pastry here.

Almond milk and cookies

We have been making our own almond milk. Seb ordered a milk bag from Amazon and with the Thermomix, it was a piece of cake to make the milk.

We soaked 100 grams of almond nuts over night.

The next day, we poured away the water, put the almond nuts in the thermomix with 1 liter of water.

The nuts were blended at high speed so any powerful blender will do.

After that, we filtered the milk out with the milk bag.

The fresh almond milk can be kept for a few days in the fridge. For the residue, known as okara, I used it to make vegan cookies. 

The 12 cookies I made would be finished before the milk was consumed. They were really good. If you are interested, I can send you the URL of the recipe. 

We no longer buy almond milk in a carton. Making our own almond milk is much cheaper and healthier as it is so fresh. And the cookies, lucky friends (cos there was never enough to share) who tried them could not tell they were vagan.

Now, doesn't this post tempt you to try this out yourself? ;)

Expensive street food

In Copenhagen, we ate well at a price. An open sandwich cost more than a sandwich in Paris. 

During our trip, we made our way to the Street Food Market on Paper Island. I read on the internet it was expensive street food and it was true. The concept of street food is not new in Asia but in Western Europe, I seldom see food court of this style. 

The Street Food Market is indoor with food trucks selling a choice of international street food. We had a good lunch there. The atmosphere is relax and casual. If you go, do a round of all the food trucks before deciding what to get. Not an easy choice. The sweet potatoe fries we had were very very good. Visit the toilets as they are interesting but I did not use it.  

Love the text "Skinny people are easy to kidnap. Stay safe, eat cake."

La Chandeleur

Today is la Chandeleur and crepes day in  France. Yesterday, I heated up ready-to-eat crepes which I bought from the supermarket for the boys' afternoon snack. Then a friend asked us over for crepes. Her girl, A1's classmate was helping to make batter. We went over at 4.30pm and had crepes again. When we got home at 7pm, my neighbour next door gave us some. The boys finished them as breakfast this morning.

A2 told me he loved crepes. That would mean that he wants to eat it everyday. Still, first dinner option would be pizza. King's cake is down to third position. Speaking of pizza, each evening when he stepped into the house, A2's question would be 'Are we having pizza for dinner?' These days, I would buy fresh pizza crust and when Seb is making dinner, he would make a really tasty pizza for the boys.

I think I would start to make real crepes for the boys soon.

Here is an extrait from Wikipedia:  Read the last sentence. I would so wanna try it. But I have no gold coin to begin with.
In culture[edit]

In France, crêpes are traditionally served on Candlemas (La Chandeleur), February 2. This day was originally Virgin Mary's Blessing Day, but became known in France as "Le Jour des Crêpes" (literally translated "The Day of the Crêpes", but sometimes given colloquially as "Avec Crêpe Day" or "National Crêpe Day"), referring to the tradition of offering crêpes. The belief was that if you could catch the crêpe with a frying pan after tossing it in the air with your right hand and holding a gold coin in your left hand, you would become rich that year.^[11][12]

The pirate theme birthday party

The big day arrived. Yesterday, we celebrated A1's 5th birthday with his friends. My brother the balloon master arrived from Singapore the day before. He made wonderful balloons for the children.

A1 had a parrot perched on his shoulder. He also had a sword and a belt to keep his sword.

 Thank God for the fine weather. We had the party in the garden. For the decorations, we had red and black balloons with pirate flags banner.

Food wise, I made a chocolate cake with the number 5 mould. My sister in law decorated it beautifully. I also made pirate cookies. We decorated bananas to look like pirates. There was tomatoes and comté with pirate sails. Pop corns on pirate cupcake stand and lots of sweets. I found pirate theme candles and put five on the cake.

 

I made pirate hats out of black felt. Here is the site where I got the idea. It was simple and the children loved their hats.

http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2012/01/a-felt-pirate-hat.html

 

The dozen of children arrived at 3pm and we had many games to keep them entertained. There were "walk the plank"; sticking the eye patch on the parrot; 123 Soleil; mini treasure hunt; throwing a bean bag from a distance into a circle drawn on the ground; drawing on the floor with chalks among other games. Still each game did not take long and we were running out of ideas at times.

 

For prizes, we had pirate coins, mini puzzles, sharks, eye patches, erasers, telescopes, pirate rings. Most of the prizes were brought from Singapore.

 

My brother made more balloons swords and the kids had fun running and fighting in the garden. The only peaceful moment was when they were all seated and eating the cake.

 

 

A1 was a lucky boy. His friends brought him nice presents. Mostly Playmobil.

At 6pm, the parents came to bring their tired children home. The 3 hours was long for us. Though we were 7 adults, it was still tiring for us. Seb was the MC of that day. My brother made balloons and played with the kids. My sister in law and I did the logistics. My friend Denise helped to take photos. My friend Anca helped out and mostly showed the kids where the toilet was and even helped three children with their big business.

It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. Made my efforts worthwhile.

 For A2's birthday, we had decided to keep it shorter. 2.5hours is max. We would welcome all help we could gather. Just hoping the weather would be as fine come September.

Home alone week

I was home alone last Sunday to Thurs. Sunday morning, Seb flew to San Francisco for work and I dropped the boys at their grandparents' place for a week's stay. They were spending their second week of school holidays bonding with their papi et 奶奶 (grandmother).

 

This was the first time I was alone in the house and I did not sleep well the first night. I missed my family. The subsequent nights were better. I had a good bonding time with Handsome since I walked him every evening in the forest.

 

When Seb returned, he brought me the usual stuff that I ordered like Resees chocolates, Froot Loops for the boys (very unhealthy but once in a blue moon, it is okay) and peanut butter. On top of that, he brought me some meat stuff he found in SF's Chinatown. One of the biggest Chinatown outside of China. He also bought 2 sets of Chinese DVDs for the boys.

I had not yet tried the Satay beef jerky. Seb had been asking me to open it and try and I think I will do it soon.

 

As for himself, he ordered a bag from Rickshaw when he knew he was going to SF. He was very happy with his bag. It fitted into his strict criterias for a working bag. I hope his search for his Right bag is over. We do have quite a few laptop bags hanging around. Check out this video to see how his made in San Francisco bag is done. http://vimeo.com/24337459 We noticed that there were only chinese in the making of the bags.

We had wanted to go out on dates during the absence of the boys. But with Seb's last min working trip, we were left with Thurs and Friday before getting the boys. Furthermore, Seb was tired. We only had a simple dinner at a Chinese after doing grocery shopping togather on Thurs night.  

On Friday night, I made some pineapple tarts using a recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover blog combined with a recipe for Thermomix. As it was an experiment trying to blend in the two recipes, it took me a long time to get these tarts done. I gave some to my mother in law the next day when we went to get the boys.

 

The boys were happy to see us. And they liked my pineapple tarts. A1 just ate the toppings though.

 

School starts tomorrow. 6 more weeks before the next school holidays.

Chinese New Year lunch

The Chinese New Year lunch with the family took place today. It was postponed from last week as we were sick then.

 

Seb's family always look forward to the starter which is the Yu Sheng. I brought back a set when I was in Singapore recently. We had fun tossing and mixing the ingredients. A1 only ate the salmon.

 

 

For main, I prepared beef rendang, made Wu Xiang (minced meat and prawns wrapped in beancurd skin), fried potato cubes and hotdog in tomato sauce and stir fried vegatables with sea cucumber. Of course, there was steamed white rice to go with the dishes.

 

My mother-in-law could not take the spicy beef rendang. My nephews love the potato in ketchup sauce. Titi who is participating in the school trip to China this week was disappointed that the lunch was postponed. He was telling his brother he would miss this dish.  

 

 My brother-in-law was the last to try the sea cucumber. We explained to him that the sea cucumber was not a vegetable but a sea creature living on the seabed. We added that it looked like a fat caterpillar. That was enough for him to rush to the rubbish bin and spat out.

 

The cheese plate was passed around after. We then attacked my home made lemon meringue tart with champagne. Lastly, we served coffee with chocolates. We ate well and I was glad everyone enjoyed the food.

My visitors brought us flowers as is often the tradition in France when invited. Seb got me a bouquet of flowers yesterday. There is never too many flowers in a house.

What's cooking

I have been trying out new things in the kitchen recently. No photos here as the end results were not photogenic. Taste wise, they were pretty decent. They had all been eaten up. That's proof alright.

I went to Nasi Lemak Lover blog and tried out her Homemade Chinese Pork Jerky (Bak Kwa) 肉干. It came out too dark and too sweet. Still, A1 loved it and finished the pieces. Seb was surprised that I could make it and that it was just minced pork.

I also used my Thermomix and made pineapple tarts from scratch. With the thermomix, it was really easy to make the pineapple jam. As I do not have a cookie cutter, I made square shaped pineapple tarts. The tart base was pretty plain. It went well though with the pineapple jam topping. However, A1 just ate the jam and left the square tarts on the table. I shall improve on the tart.

Other than testing these Chinese New Year goodies, I achieved a new skill. A1's new sweater's zipper was broken. I bought a new zipper; took out the spoilt zipper and sewed up the new zipper on his sweater. I am happy with the result. I can change zipper on kids' sweater. I was telling Seb that if we were in Singapore, I could have it amended cheaply. In France, cheap means to DIY.

I have climb up a new level of being a traditional mother. Yeah!

School cantine menu

Each time I ask the boys what they have for lunch, they usually say they don't know meaning they forgot, or very vague replies like 'meat, vegetables'. On rare occasions, I will get answers like tomatoes, potatoes, yoghurt etc.

The weekly lunch menu is put up on the notice board outside the school. I looked at it diligently in the beginning but as time passed, I did not bother as the menu was not always up to date.

Recently, I went into the village's website and saw the school lunch menu for the whole year. I downloaded the excel file and was delighted to see what the boys would be eating for the coming weeks.

An example of last week's lunch menu. Everyone in the school is serve the same food. In the boys' class, before lunch, the teacher would go through the menu with the students. As with french meal, there is always a starter, a main with side, a milk product and a dessert.

There were days when A1 asked me why there was no starter for dinner. I told him that I was cooking chinese. :D

If you like to have some ideas on french cusine, look up the receipes on the lists below. Upon request, I can even send you the excel file.

MENU	Semaine du 6 au 10 janvier 2014
LUNDI	MARDI	JEUDI	VENDREDI
Velouté potiron	Tomates sance thon	Carottes râpées	Betteraves vinaigrette
Rôti de Dinde	Cassoulet (saucisse et	Poêlée de colin filet	Paupiette au veau
sauce suprême	saucisson)	doré au beurre	jus à l'ail
Petits pois lardons	Haricots blancs	Purée de brocolis	Frites
volaille champignons		pomme de terre
Yaourt sucré	Spécialité fromagère	Suisse arôme	Camembert
Fruit frais de saison	Spécialité pomme fraise	Galette des rois	Fruit frais de saison

Home made brioche

I have been trying out recipes from the Thermomix cookbook. Thermomix has a wide range of cookbooks and I was given two with my Thermomix order.

 

I made brioche for the second time. The first time, I made one brioche and it was not pretty as my baking tin was too small though it tasted good. This morning, I made two brioche from the dough and they turned out prettier.

 

Taste wise, it was just as good. The time to make the dough using the Thermomix was less than 5mins. Resting dough time was 40mins in total. I used organic flour and eggs. So it is 99% organic except for 40g of sugar , a pinch of salt and 15g of yeast. Is yeast organic or not?

Without my Thermomix, I would never thought of making brioche. I am not a fan of bread and pastry. Now, if I make them, I will have to eat them.  

Thermomix

Living in the countryside, sometimes I feel like a Stepford wife; being invited to Tupperware parties and Thermomix cooking gathering and having afternoon tea with neighbours while the children play togather. Very docile and tranquille. OK, I exaggerate on the docile side.

 

 Anyway, back to the topic. I have a new helper in the kitchen. Her name is Thermomix and I got to know about her from one of the afternoon teas organised by my neighbours. She can do wonders in terms of french (ang moh) cuisine. I don't do french cusine well. 

 

Now with Thermomix, I can dish up mashed potatoes akin to the one made by a french granny. I make ang moh soup like those poured out from a carton. I make tarts from A to Z; from dough to the fillings and toppings. I make bread too. All done easily and quickly. Just amazing. Thermomix has a steaming function and the family love the steamed corns I do every sunday afternoon.

Before living in this village, I have never heard of Thermomix. It is sold only through reunions, much like the concept of Tupperware. When I first saw the presentation, I thought it would be great for Seb. He likes to do his own dough for tarts. On the second presentation with Seb witnessing the functions, we decided to get it. My neighbour was surprised that I succumbed to it as she thought I was skeptical about it. With me working, it is a time saver. I program it to cook and leave to do other chores. I do lots of soup these days as the weather is turning chilly. When hotter days are here, I will be doing fresh fruits sorbet with the Thermomix.

I made a lemon tart meringue (the meringue) was cooking in the Thermomix in the photo above. It was well received by my invites. I am not a lemon person. Still, I am pretty proud of my new skill, mastering the Thermomix. ;)

The fruits of autum

Autum is the season of mushrooms. Living in the countryside surrounded by forest, we went mushrooms picking with a friend and her girls. I knew nothing about mushroom hunting so I was glad that my friend taught me a thing or two. Thumb of rule, in case of doubt, don't pick it. Actually, we used a knife to cut off the stem so that the mushroom could grow again. If we picked it, the root would be damaged and there won't be a new mushroom growing from that root.

 

Anyway, most wild mushrooms are not edible. We were looking mainly for cepes (porcino) as they were easy to identity. With our little children, it was difficult to spot the mushrooms further away from the forest trail. Or those that were edible already had worms in them.  

 

Our pick of the day was a coulemelle. My friend told me it was good. Just soak it in water and slice it up and fry with butter and garlic. It was big and easy to identify. It has a little hat just underneath. Seb and I tried it and we liked it. No tummy ache so all was well. 

We tried mushroom picking over the weekend with Seb taking his usual walk with Handsome in the forest. We did not have much luck this time. Most of the time, the kids and I were saying 'No good.' when we spotted the mushrooms.

 

Autum is also the season of chestnut. And being a city girl, I was not able to tell which chestnut fruits were edible. As school holidays started this week, the boys spent their days at the recreation center while I worked. On a lovely day, they went to the forest and picked up chestnuts. The staff at the center prepared a bag of chestnuts for each parent. I boiled them and A1 and I enjoyed them. Seb and A2 were not fans.   

Despite the wet autum season, there are interesting things to do in the forest. To make our kids walk in the forest, we give them a basket and tell them we are going chestnut and mushrooms hunting.

Dandelion

Dandelion in french is called Pissenlit. Its direct translation would be 'peeinbed' due to the strong diuretic effect of the plant's roots. I was told that Pissenlit though consider a weed can be eaten as salad.

With just a few days of warm spring weather, my garden is full of weeds.

Seb is starting to dig a perimeter of 3m X 4m in the garden. It would be our vegetable plot. And looking at this area, it is already a vegetable garden full of dandelion to be used as salad. 

 

I have never tasted Pissenlit. I will be looking up for receipe online. Will update about my salad of pissenlit once it is done.

Lo Hei (Prosperity Toss)

This was the second time I had it in my ten years in France. Lo Hei is a popular dish during the chinese new year in Singapore. One usually has it several times during the chinese new year period; with family, colleagues, friends, etc...

 

Every ingredient has a good meaning and while mixing them with raw fish (usually salmon) using chopsticks, we have to say good things. A good explanation can be found here. The higher we toss, the better. Imagine the mess on the table if the plate was not big enough.

 

On the 15th day of chinese new year, I invited Seb's family to celebrate chinese new year. We had lo hei and they enjoyed it a lot. This was a good starter. Maybe when my mum comes in April, we will toss it again.