Garbage - Shut Your Mouth

Indian Summer

I had a beautiful weekend, ending with dinner with my lovely flatties plus one =) We headed to Indian Summer after seeing an ad that said they'd give free wine to groups of more than 4. Yes you can lure me anywhere with promises of free alcohol =P

Lovely Company

I have to say I was a bit apprehensive,when I entered the restaurant on a Saturday night and it was pretty empty. However we were not disappointed with the food because it was delicious. I ordered the Briyani and it was perfect, briyani rice with large chunks of marinated chicken and sprinkled with cashews. Omnomnomnom! Being from Malaysia, I would say that the food is pretty authentic but to me it is quite pricey ($19) as I can pay $5 or less for double this portion back home. It comes with Raita, which is really good for when food gets too spicy.

John had the green herb curry, I forgot it's name, I think it was Nyigiri. It was pretty good although I feel it had a little bit too much ginger in it. Well what do I know? Maybe it's supposed to have a strong ginger taste =) We also had the Cheese Naan and the Garlic Naan. I really liked the garlic naan, but wasn't too keen on the Cheese Naan as it was sweet and I would have preferred a more savoury version.

Just us again =)

The owner was pretty patient with a very tipsy group of people trying to pay for their meal =) I was pretty embarrassed when I asked him how long the place had been running and he said 9 years. How come I only found our about it now? Well I think it is because of it's location. It's pretty hidden as it is off the main street, but definitely worth a visit =)

Sounds like a plan

The next time an electricity company salesperson comes knocking on my door, I will put on a very silly face and go " Huh? I..I no speak Engrish... Wot yu tokin? I no... no Engrishhhhh!" and then say goodbye. Yes I can get away with it. Perks of being Asian.

Hm... Since some people think I look middle eastern.. I will also add "NOOOOO my husband no let me tok to other man!!!" and then slam the door.

Joe Brooks - My heart will wait

Kimchi Stew

There's nothing more satisfying than digging into a steaming hot pot of Kimchi Stew on a cold day really. Sometimes when my flatties and I have cravings, we brave the frosty Dunedin weather to crawlwalk all the way to 'Seoul' where the boss lady knows us well =) That is why I decided to try to emulate this at home using a recipe I found on a Korean recipe website.
It turned out pretty delicious, but I think I have to do some tweaking the next time I make it, such as adding more salt and garlic.

I love doing prep work. Although it takes more work because you have more to wash, I find it gives me a very satisfying feeling seeing everything neat and ready to go into the wok/pot =P

So I went to the Indian Cultural Night with Sreekari and Saila last night. Felt like some kind of beauty pageant outside the theatre.. Girls dressing up to the max, giving other girls a look like "Yea bitch I am hotter than you". What the hell? *_* I loved the dances though! It was a colourful mix of dance from all different parts of India, and I particularly liked the Punjabi dance at the end because it is so lively and energetic. Hm.. Think I might take up bollywood dance next because it seems like such a good workout.. Just watching the dance moves makes me feel tired =P All in all, it was a great show =)

Soto Ayam

This is what I made over the weekend. It's called "Soto Ayam" which is a Malaysian dish. Although John doesn't know what it is so I think it might be a regional dish.

Although it looks like clear soup, this is definitely not a bland dish. It is put on the stove for over two hours so that the flavour from the chicken goes into the soup. There is also an aromatic fragrance of coconut milk coupled with 4 popular spices used in Malaysian cooking. I did not have fried shallots or I would have put some in along with thinly sliced strips of cucumber, to make it even tastier!

Hm.. There's something really satisfying about eating something that you spent 2 hours making =) This really reminds me of home!

Savoury Cheese Bread

Okay. No more emo shit. Today I am going to share with you a recipe I came up with, while tweaking another recipe I found online.

Here's what you need:

- 1 3/4 cups flour

- 1/4 cups sugar (You could cut down on this if you want to)

- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 3/4 tsp salt

- 1 cup milk

- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I used Edam because it's apparently lower in fat? According to my health conscious friend Cherlyn =P)

- 1 egg beaten

- 1/3 cups oil

- Italian Herbs

1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celcius and grease the bread tin

2. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cheese in a bowl

3. In another bowl, mix the egg, milk and oil well

4. Pour mixture from #2 into #3 and stir it

5. Pour in Italian Herbs and mix well. You can use as much as you want really but not too much!

6. Pour the batter into your bread tin

7. Bake for 35 minutes

Oh, I sprinkled more cheese on top while it was halfway done. Why? I don't know really. Just because I like cheese?

It's real yummy and you can taste strings of melted cheese as you are biting into your bread. Omnomnomnom. It's quick and easy for when you have that craving for cheeseeeee.

If you want, you could also add in some ham or bacon as an option.. I might just try it next time =)

If you would like to make it a sweet bread instead of a savoury one, just don't add the Italian Herbs, cut down on salt and add more sugar. Easy!

Weekend Culinary Adventures!

So last weekend John and I decided to finish all the stuff in our fridge because it was like an eclipse in there.. You couldn't even see the fridge light when you opened the door =P

Because we had tonnes of oranges, I decided to make Orange Chicken for dinner. The chicken was deep fried, and then I poured an orange sauce into the pan and gave it a stir before taking it out. It looks spicy doesn't it? I added some dried chilli's. Dried chilli's are awesome and I want to add them to every dish I make =X

It turned out pretty good! John decorated this dish =)
I also made Kimchi Fried Rice with Beef the next night, because I felt like it.
I basically just put eggs, onions, minced beef, peas, carrots, kimchi and rice in it. I think it would have been better with Gochujang sauce in it because it is not spicy and flavourful enough as Korean food is supposed to be. It does look colourful though!

Fleurs Place

For John's 21st birthday surprise, I took him to Fleurs Place in Moeraki. It's apparently a pretty world famous place.

Fleurs Place has a rustic feel to it and from its outward perspective, does not look like a restaurant at all. It sits at the end of the jetty in the quiet town of Moeraki. When I say quiet town, I mean quiet town. It is a fishing village with a few houses and most probably they're holiday homes. I remember visiting the town last year, thinking there would be ATMs, but there weren't.

Fleurs promises 'fresh fish off the boats' and indeed the seafood that we got was really fresh.
I ordered the Shellfish Hot Pot in saffron broth with fresh fish, shellfish, potatoes and spinach.The giant bowl was bigger than my face and was filled to the brim with oysters, salmon, codfish and many other types of shellfish. The saffron broth was not too thick in texture and yet had a very intense flavour. Once I started, I didn't stop until I had emptied out the entire bowl. Even now, as I am thinking about it... My salivary glands are working overtime.

John ordered the fish of the day
Just us =)

After that we were pretty much stuffed. But after all that seafood, we were craving something sweet so we decided to have dessert. We ordered the Summer Pudding which was delicious as well!

I would love to go back there again, but it takes a one-hour drive out from Dunedin, so the next trip might have to take a while!

Lazy

Just an outfit today..

Just because I am a lazy blogger =P I have a current obsession with blue. Never used to like it, because I thought I would look bad in it. But recently I found that I don't. So there =P

Will blog about John's birthday weekend next!