Mieng Kham - Thai AFF #1

Mieng Kham is a traditional snack from Laos and Thailand.

Miang originated in northern Thailand near the border with Myanmar. The original miang consisted of fermented and or pickled wild tea leaves.Over time, other ingredients were included in the snack. The name can be interpreted as meaning "eating many things in one bite" - from miang (เมี่ยง), meaning "food wrapped in leaves", and kham (คำ), "a bite".

In Laos, this is also made with leaves of spinach, cabbage or lettuce. But in Thailand, it is usually with the leaves of Piper sarmentosum, or wild betel/pepper leaves, locally known as daun kaduk.

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Duck Breast with Pickled Ginger and Pineapple - Pineapple #3

I went into a bookstore looking for my sister in law who went in earlier and passed by some cooking books in Chinese. I saw one dish on the cover looking kind of attractive and quickly flipped it. Ah,… the dish is duck with pickled ginger and pineapple… but I didn’t go through the recipe because I needed to be quick.

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Pineapple Lattice Tart - Pineapple #2

There are times  when I am totally craving for pineapple tarts and it's not Chinese New Year.
And those times, I am not that diligent to form bite sized ones.

With this big big tart (If I made a tighter lattice, I'll call it pie), I can eat a lot of pineapple filling and pastry with a lot less work. That's total satisfaction!

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Crab Curry with Pineapple - Pineapples #1

I happened to see some crabs at the wet market near my mom's place and so I bought some.

I learnt during MFF Kedah and Perlis that seafood can be cooked with pineapple. So I tried it out myself.
The pineapples added a lovely flavour dimension to the curry. We loved it.

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Cabbage Salad with Chuka-fu Dressing - Easy Japanese Fare #3

About 10 years ago, when I was still in Klang Valley, I frequent this Japanese eatery Ryu Men Tei in Subang Jaya on a weekly basis. I have roughly eaten about 90% of what is on their menu. My then bf, now husband, loves the restaurant as well. The restaurant was always packed, even on weekdays.

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Saba Shio @ Salt Grilled Mackerel - Easy Japanese Fare #2

I love grilled saba and I do order this quite often whenever I eat at Japanese restaurants.

It's actually a lot cheaper if you grill this at home. When I dine at the restaurant, I get 1/4 of  the fish, but if I cook at home I get one whole fish for the same price. Wow, isn't that very "dai" (means worth it in Cantonese)

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Kurigohan, Japanese Chestnut Rice - Simple Japanese Fare #1

My blogger friend cum old school mate Annie gave me some beautiful delicious koshikahari rice.
I want to make full use of it, and so, I tried cooking chestnut rice.

That time, I haven't bought my mirin, so I used rum to replace.
I'm not sure if I will submit this to AFF, haha, I used rum.

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Mango Cheese Charlotte -No Bake Cheesecake #3

MIL suddenly asked us out for dinner with a newly wed couple who are relatives. And asked me whether I can make a cake for them. 22 hours notice!

To make a cake for the newly wed couple as a simple dinner celebration, is not like a birthday cake or a regular cake, I have to incorporate romantic elements into it. I can only make do with whatever I have in hand. I have mangoes, limes, chocolate, coffee and no berries at all in the fridge. So, it's either I make a mango cake or a mocha flavoured cake.

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Rainbow Fruit Cheesecake - No Bake Cheesecakes #2

All natural no food colouring, no artificial flavouring, all fruits! It's one of my crazy projects that I made out of the quest for new ideas.
It's quite an expensive cake to make,but worth it, if you are not into food colouring but yet want to make a surprise for kids.

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Pistachio Lime Cheesecake - No Bake Cheesecakes #1

This cake was a feat!

I got to know that my BIL’s birthday was on the day itself at 1.30pm. I asked him whether he wants a cake, and he said yeah, cheesecake but egg free please. Then I searched for some cheesecake series and passed the phone to him, asking him to select the one he wants. He chose a lime and strawberry cheesecake.

I had no strawberries on hand but I happened to have some homegrown limes from my brother’s neighbor. That’s perfect! I don’t have limes at home usually and he’s one lucky man! And I also bought a good sum dairy products in baking the day before, so, making a cheesecake will not be too hard. A baked one will take too long as I had to get the cake ready that day itself and ah-ha, since he wanted it egg free, let’s just make a no bake cheesecake, a lime flavoured one.

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Buta Kakuni - AFF Japan Butakakuni # 3

My husband loves buta kakuni. He will order this whenever possible during out dine outs at his current fav Japanese restaurant in Ipoh. Of which is why I wanted to cook it.

I went through a few recipes and found Nami's recipe to be quite similiar to what we ate as I knew the meat was once fried.
The preparation take a lot of time, as said by Nami herself, the result is worth it.

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Rolled Chashu - AFF Japan Butaniku #2

The 2nd Butaniku (Pork in Japanese) dish I am posting :)

I wanted to complete my tonkotsu ramen with chashu and I love how it looks like when rolled.

I did a bit of mistake. I think I should cut the corners off the belly where the ends meet, so that when rolled up, it will be a nice cylinder. I only realised that when I have tied up everything.
A bit lazy to open up the whole thing and wrap again, so I just let it be

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