Episode 503 - Review for Tez Amore Cafe

Hi guys! Hope you guys are doing better than me. I'm down with the flu. Don't even know where it came from. Hope it goes away before I go for vacay. More foodie exploration coming your way!! Anyway, this will be a short one. Me and my girlfriends checked out the new cafe at Wisma Yakin, Kuala Belait. It's a cafe opened by a very young chap. Kudos to him to even have the guts to open an eatery in KB. Honestly speaking, I think it's challenging to open a cafe here though that would be one of my dreams one day. A restaurant or a fusion of cafe and clothes. Two things I love most. Haha. Ok, back to the Cafe. Well, I went there with 3 of my other friends and we didn't order any dishes, just drinks and desert. I must say. I was very disappointed and still am. The drinks we ordered were simple drinks. Longan 'ping', Ice Lemon Tea , warm milk (yes, MILK!!! and they didn't have any cookies to go that with Haha but at least they frothed that up) and one more. I forgot. Then, we ordered Chocolate Soufle and their home made Green tea Ice cream. The Ice Longan was not sweet, the lemon tea just tasted like lemon drink and the Chocolate Soufle wasn't pleasing at all. Though eating with the Vanilla Ice cream tasted better. The Soufle was too firm I guess and somehow seemed like Chocolate 'agar-agar'. Then came the Green tea ice cream. It tasted good but the texture was all wrong for ice cream. It had icy particles in it. Think it wasn't smooth enough. However, presentation wise, the deserts looked good. Out of ten I'd give the cafe a 4 just because it had a nice interior with lotsa IKEA stuff and OMG I almost wanted to steal the Fondue thingy. Haha. But I think it was somehow of an insence burner.. Hmmm... I like the string curtains they put up and the comfortable sofas. But lastly, they really need to do something with the ventilation because they have an open kitchen concept. Leaving the cafe smelling like oil is just not that nice. One thing is for sure, there is lots of room for improvement! Hope they won't take my opinions the wrong way. Because lots of my other friends have the same thoughts as I do. Think I'll need to go and try their food next! Heard it's not that bad. Alright, if you want to try out Tez Amore Cafe, it is situated at Jalan Pandan 5, Wisma Yakin Building, next to the Chinese Restaurant.

Catch you in the next post! :o)

Episode 502 - Patola & Tanghoon with Prawns

Patola & Tang hoon with Prawns

Another stir fried dish to kick start the year! If you guys are wondering what 'tang hoon' is, it's called Glass noodles, kind of like the transparent type of Vermicilli. Very famous type of noodle in Thai salad dishes. They usually come in bundles in small packets. It's a great water absorber so you need to serve this dish right away after it's prepared.

Ingredients:
1 patola; skin peeled off, sliced half & cut into 1 1/2 cm thick
2 bundles of 'Tanghoon'; pre-cooked in water for a few minutes & drained, set aside

2 1/2 inches of carrot; cut into strips

2 shallots, 2 cloves garlic & 5g of dried shrimps (soaked in hot water for 1 minute, take the legs off) - ALL pounded together

8 fresh prawns; deviened & shelled off

1 1/2 tbspns Light Soya Sauce

1 tbspn Fish sauce
1 1/2 tbspns Chicken flavoured Seasoning powder
5 tbspns Corn Oil

Method:

Heat up pan with oil and place all pounded ingredients. Leave to fry until dried shrimps starts to crisp up for abit and shallots & garlic becomes aromatic. Put in carrots and patola, stir till carrots limp and patola changes colour. Now, add in the prawns and cook till they curl up. Add in the 'tanghoon' and all the seasoning and stir thoroughly. Serve immediately.

Serves: 3-4

*Tip*: You might need to add abit more oil when putting the vege in as the dried shrimps tend to suck in the oil. You may add some more seasoning if it is not tasty enough for your liking.

In case you don't know how a patola (hard outer skin but very soft inner flesh) looks like, here is a pic :

Episode 501 - Fried Mamee Special

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!! It was a great year last year and I hope that this year will be better! Great recipes ahead of you so please stick around.. I know it takes me ages to update my blog with the very busy schedule in the next few weeks but I will try my best to post some recipes up as soon as am free.. Here's another recipe to add on to my last post on Instant Noodles and how you can enhance the tastiness of em!

Fried Mee Special

Ingredients:

4 Pkts Mamee Vegetarian flavour

2 1/2 inch Carrot; cut to strips

1 fish cake; sliced thinly

1/4 Sweet China Cabbage; shredded

8-10 fresh prawns; deveined & shelled off

2 shallots; sliced thinly

1 garlic; diced

1 large onion; diced

1 tbspn light sauce

3 tbspns Oyster Sauce (Chicken Flavoured)

1 tbspn Chicken flavoured Seasoning Powder

1 packet Mamee Vegetarian Seasoning (from Mamee Instant Noodle Packet)

2 eggs; beaten with salt & pepper, fried into Omellette & cut into strips

Method:

Cook instant Mamee noodles in boiling water 80% done. Strain and put aside. Heat up wok or non-stick pan (large enough to cater 4 pkts of Mee) with 3 tbspns oil and put in diced shallots, garlic & large onion. Once aromatic, stir fry carrots, cabbage, prawn & fish cakes. Stir fry till cabbage turns brighter green and carrots soften. Now put in the 3/4 cooked noodles and the rest of ingredients (all the seasoning - in RED). Mix well and taste. If saltiness is not as desired, add abit of salt.

Garnish with the pre-made Omellette and serve while it's warm.

Serves: 5