07 Nov 2010 - homecooked stuff

stir-fried garlic sprouts with carrots and back bacon. bought it instead of streaky bacon such that they would have healthier meals. the very aroma of this dish wafted into someone's dream who then screamed "what's cooking?!" before falling into slumber again.


stir-fried kelp - her intent was probably to clear stock. too fishy a smell for him... but he ate it anyway


for something more nourishing - soup! bittergourd soup to be exact. he had wanted plain bittergourd soup, but she decided that she would get some pork bones for better flavour. you see carrots in here for the same reasons as the previous dish - to clear stock.

the enjoyable 2 weeks down under (17 Oct - 2 Nov 2010)

been away from the country for 2 weeks. this time, the overseas assignment was for them to go to Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia.

every shop in the vicinity would not be opened when they set off for work, and would be closed when they returned at the end of the day. the most important thing was to stock up with fresh produce. their first shopping spree was at Coles, Keppel Bay Plaza. for much of the first week, all he ate was boiled corn, carrots (~AUD1 for a kilo) and cocktail sausages (~AUD2 for 500g). no other cooking method was used, the only medium was water. well, not that bad, he had milk (~AUD1 for 1 litre), carbonated lemonade (~AUD2 for 2 bottles) and XXXX bitter (~AUD30 for a dozen) for drinks.

soon, he got tired of it and decided to get more variety, and this time round, they visited Woolsworth at Yeppoon Central Mall. bought potatoes (~AUD4 a kilo), cheese, eggs (~AUD3 a dozen) and instant noodles(homebrand ~AUD1 for packs for 5).

shown below would be the more palatable pictures.

milk from Coles' housebrand, looks like an advertisement huh


XXXX bitter - his favourite Australian beer


drained instant noodles with melted cheese, sausages and poached egg. first ate this cheese noodles when a classmate cooked for the project group. adds to taste especially when you're cooking with water, and have no oil, salt or pepper. you'll see how much more handy the cheese comes in in the other pictures.


the sun rose at 5am every morning, shining through the shades. signalled that it was time to wake up and make breakfast.


he just loves to eat at the balcony, good breeze, fresh air, infinity view.


close up of the smoking breakfast on another day. the hot potatoes had melted the cheese into a perfect coating. hopefully, it wasn't because he was too hungry that he thought that it was great stuff.


closeup of the melted coating


potato salad with grated carrot - the budget mayonnaise that he bought was not the kind of mayo he had expected. perhaps it lacked the mustard factor? he only attempted this once, and the rest of the mayo become dip for cracker.


on another day when the boss came by, a dinner gathering was organised at Sizzler. he probably had the heaviest meal of them all, a 500g T-bone. he enjoyed the salad bar more than the mains though, haha.


sidetracking a little from the food stuff. his lodging Villa Mar Colina was set upon a bluff, overlooking the sea. very neat.


check out the view from behind the kitchen sink. solid stuff.


but alas, not matter how reluctant one is, all good things have to come to an end...

the beautiful rocky coast...


the beach with fine powdery sand...


he had to leave all these to return to where his heart belonged

sweet, sour, salty pork ribs, brinjal and bittergourd soup 3 Feb 2010

chapalang pork ribs. these are sweet, salty and a little sour. cooked for a little too long (she said she wanted to seal in the flavour), and the meat became tough.


steamed brinjal topped with olive vegetables and pork floss - steamed for 15 minutes or so, but the brinjal tasted a lot drier than usual, not as enjoyable.


bittergourd soup - weird addition of carrot, but finished them up anyway

stirfried pork and meatball soup 29 Jan 2010

stir fried pork with salted bean sauce


meatball vegetable soup - finally used up the remaining vegetables in making this soup. one of her many diet meals in recent

chicken salad and capsicum beef 28 Jan 2010

met the wife at the supermarket to pay for groceries, and then headed back to make dinner.

chicken salad - made up of freshly removed corn kernels, diced carrots, celery and chicken breast. very fulfilling, but without the sense of guilt.


stir fried beef with capsicum and salted bean sauce - capsicums seem to be the standard companion for beef over here at the moment. and he likes his capsicums cooked longer.

brinjal with spiced pork cubes, asparagus with chicken thigh, rojak soup 26 Jan 2010

brinjal with spiced pork cubes - cut reasonably large chunks of the brinjal, scooped the pork cubes out of the can and layered onto the brinjal. put it to steam for 15 minutes. maybe you should try this one of these days, cheap to buy, simple to make, good to eat. any savoury topping would probably do.


asparagus with chicken thigh slices - this was the first try at color retention. peeled the asparagus and blanched for around 10 minutes, before setting them in cool water. chicken was marinated with salt, pepper and some corn flour. cooked till opaque in the wok before adding the asparagus for a quick stir-fry.


rojak soup - why? essence of chicken, pork ribs, corn, carrots, potatoes and celery were all used. somehow the sweetness of the corn was not evident in the soup, it smelt more of the chicken essence and a little bit of celery. carrot was cooked enough to be mashed easily by the tongue, oozing sweetness while at it.

rainbow pork loin and honey charred wings 22 Jan 2010

rainbow pork loin - not sure how to translate this, it's chinese name is 渔香肉丝, but since it looked so colorful, he decided to name it this way. carrots had to be grated to get the fine strips you see, and they added color and sweetness to the dish. other ingredients were onions, green bell pepper, broad bean sauce


honey coated (or charred) chicken wings - this was supposed to be caramel coated, but she mistakened rock salt for rock sugar, and realised that sugar was actually non-existent. ended up using honey to coated the pre-fried chicken wings before throwing them into the wok again to seal the flavour (according to her). alas, honey appeared to have low tolerance of heat, and the surface got charred just a while into cooking. still edible though, most likely thanks to her 4-hr marinade of the chicken wings. also realised that frying chicken wings in a non-stick pan saves oil and doesn't stick the chicken wings to its surface, unlike using a wok, where you have to keep adding oil, and the stuck-on bits make it a hassle to wash.

dinner on 18 Jan 2010

had a simple meal this day. his favourite tofu. she chopped up square blocks of the tofu and topped with marinated minced meat mixed with diced carrots and pork floss, before sending it into the steaming pot. perhaps the pork floss should have been added last. carrots were a nice addition to this dish, gifting it a tinge of sweetness.

close up of the toufu dish


a more mundane view of it

stuffed chicken breast and mixed vegetable

breakfast of vermicelli and meatballs again. with the new addition of an egg. to be honest, he wouldn't get sick of eating the same thing everyday, not yet at least.


stuffed chicken breast - stuffed with cheese and ham, then coated with cereal before frying. still the super delicious treat with creamy cheese that oozes out with each bite. this time round, butter was added to the oil, which made the aroma even more tantalising.


mixed vegetable of broccoli, carrots and baby corn. cooked with a slab of butter and some water. corn and broccoli still crunchy while the carrot was softened enough.


heart shaped watermelon - made using the same mold that molded the heart shaped stuff you've seen in this blog. she's contemplating buying a flower mold in the near future...


the victim - still looking good.


he had also made porridge with diced pork loin and pork liver, but it didn't look too good. also, he had forgotten to marinate the meat, so it didn't taste that good in the end. the failed dish of today. no pictures.

diced chicken, gizzards, pork bone soup

came home from work 30 minutes before midnight and she already had dinner waiting for him. check out the spread.

diced chicken with cashew nuts, carrots and green bell pepper. good variety of color, and tasted fine as well. maybe a little too much cashew nuts though.


"flowered" chicken gizzard with beans and red bell pepper - she seemed to be aware of color and presentation in recent, making good progress. this was nice to eat too.


last but not least, pork bone soup with potatoes and carrots. a sumptuous meal with a doting wife, a very comforting way to end a long and arduous day.

sweet and sour pork loin, dinner 21 December 09

she prepared sugar yam again in the afternoon and left it in the fridge to take form. used 4 big scoops of sugar.....


also, she had already chopped up the vegetables to wait for him to cook. she forgot to peel the asparagus though, so some of them were too tough to eat. again, he seared some smashed garlic in the oil till fragrant before throwing in the vegetables, salt and butter. she found the end product too bland, even when he had threw in a large chunk of butter and half a teaspoon of salt. he's trying to eat healthily.


she had requested that he buy some pork loin after work, and he found frozen meat chunks of loin. the chilled section offered only loin ribs. she took out 3 slabs of meat and cut strips out of them to marinate in ginger, flour, egg, salt and spring onions. also made her concoction of her favourite sweet and sour sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, kushiyaki, soy sauce.

helped her fry the meat while she washed up the dirty dishes to make space. set on kitchen towel to remove excess oil. when he proceeded to fry the white sesame over medium heat, many of the seeds started jumping all around the place, forcing him to turn down the flame.


and the finished product here, after rolling it in the sweet and sour sauce and white sesame. thick sinful syrup, and the meat tasted a tad too salty. seems like they are becoming opposite, one advocating healthy eating, while the other dishing out salt and sugar at will. luckily, it went well with the bland tofu porridge.


not one to waste food (again, they are dissimilar), he pan-fried the leftover batter. had wanted to deep-fry it but the wok was too heavily coated with sugar and he found it too troublesome to wash it up (was also getting very hungry). the batter didn't expand, and it turned out to be something like a salty roti prata. fortunately, it didn't taste bad.


end of report for 21 december 09.

homecooked dinner 19 Dec 09

bought chicken gizzard, red and yellow peppers, broccoli, sweetcorn, asparagus, carrots.

took a nap before waking up to prepare dinner.

she washed the gizzards, boiled them for a bit before removing slicing them. chopped up the other stuff that she needed, red and yellow peppers, ginger and garlic.

for his always-chapalang-dish, he chopped up broccoli, carrot, asparagus, garlic, yellow onion, and sweetcorn. the more interesting aspect was remove the kernels from the corn. googled for "kernels off the cob" and found this method of using a knife to remove around 2 rows at a time by cutting through the kernels. however, he only sliced 4 times to get all the kernels off, and achieved a rectangular corn cob. sadly, that got thrown away instinctively, and he didn't want to get it out of the rubbish bin for photographs.

stir-fried chicken gizzards - the stuff were boiled once before stirfrying with the garlic, ginger and peppers. no bad smell, and tasted superb. got him wondering why he objected to buying the gizzards earlier on.


super mixed vegetables - browned garlic and onions before throwing the rest of the vegetables in. melted some butter and sprinkled some salt to taste. mixed them evenly before serving.


wife commented that the onions probably spoilt the sweetness of the corn and butter. however, the broccoli tasted good, maybe because it had absorbed more of the butter with its head of "hair".