Mee Siam (Siamese Noodles)

Mee Siam (Siamese Noodles)....ah, I remember this one dish meal very well.  I had my very first taste of this wonderful dish when I was a junior.  I was so interested in the colour and the "slurp-slurp" sound that the parents, uncles and aunties were making plus their chit-chatting in between that I had take a spoonful of it from my Grandma's plate.  As you guys may have guessed it, I screamed as it was super hot, (pedas - chili hot!!!)... sweet and sourish in taste.  This is not a taste which a junior's taste buds will accept. I stayed away from Mee Siam till I was in kinder and after one spoonful of this delicious dish, I will always ask my Grandma for her Mee Siam at least fourth nightly.

My Grandma told me that she learnt it from her Thai relative and its called Mee Kati and even though we are Peranakan, my Grandma often reminded me that Mee Siam is not an "original" dish from the Babas and Nyonyas, but its from Thailand. That's why its called Mee Siam as its from Siam (Siam changed its name to Thailand in 1949).

So, what is Mee Siam? Firstly, there's 2 version of Mee Siam - the dry version and the gravy version. Mee Siam is a popular one-dish meal in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. It is made of rice noodles (bee hoon) and serve with a special hot, sweet and sourish gravy.  For the dry version, you will still use the same special sambal which you make the gravy from. My other half loves the udang kering (dried shrimps) and whenever I make this dish, I will make sure I increase the udang kering. The special sambal is made of fermented soya bean paste, chili, buah keras, belacan, coconut milk, onions and tamarind. My Grandma will also fry the rice noodles with taugeh (bean sprouts), ku chai (chinese chives) and banana blossom. However, over here, its a little hard to get my hand on some banana blossom and ku chai. Therefore, I will only use taugeh and spring onions.

Here's a photo of my humble Mee Siam.

Oh...oh.....
Before I whisk myself from here to have another round of Mee Siam, here's a photo of the Nasi Lemak which we made this week. Nasi Lemak is just so delicious that we have to make it at least 2-3 times a month.

jəə gan mài kraao-nâa!!!!

Ipoh Hor Fun

I always remember how we will argue about this dish....whenever I mentioned "I want to eat Ipoh Hor Fun" to my friends, they will say "Ehhh, why do you want to have something soupy? Its so hot now...not rainy season yet leh"  This is when we start our arguement about this dish. To a lot of people, whenever you mentioned Ipoh Hor Fun, its hor fun in chicken and prawn soup with shredded chicken, prawns and spring onion on top. However, in my family, Ipoh Hor Fun comes with a delicious thick gravy topped with shredded chicken, mushroom and veggies. My Grandma will braise the mushrooms and make it into that thick gravy sauce for the Hor Fun...yummy!!!!

We were craving for some Ipoh Hor Fun for several days now and on my off day, we decided to make this dish. My two kiddos have never tried this dish before and we were really hoping that they will love it.  My other half was already thinking of what else to cook for them if they do not like the dish..haha! It was a waste of time as our 2 kiddos fell in love with it..

Here's a photo of our Ipoh Hor Fun...

Till next time...let's makan!!!

Chicken Wrap, Chicken Tandoori Wrap and Ham Wrap with Salad

I love wraps as its easy to do and easy to eat. However, I never thought that I would do it at work since I am a Pastry Chef. Well, I guess never say never..haha! When I was younger, it was a special treat for me when my parents brought me to TGIF and I had the chicken fajitas with tortilla wraps. When I grew older, tortilla wraps were everywhere and it was so common. I remembered my parents telling me that tortillas are from Mexico and it means little cakes.  

Wrapping a tortilla wrap is pretty different from wrapping a popiah, but once you get the hang of it, its really easy.  At work, we have quite a number of varieties of wraps - roast chicken wrap, tandoori chicken wrap, roast beef wrap, corn beef wrap, lamb wrap, ham wrap, egg mayo wrap, etc... and all these wraps will be wrap with salads.  This is a delicious and healthy lunch I must say.  Here's a photo which I took at work...

Try a wrap today....it will really make your day!!!

Pancakes with Maple Syrup

My little Prince who is in Year 1 came back one day and asking me to allow him to flip the pancakes. I asked him to tell me everything about it and he mentioned that his school had a pancake day and they were allowed to make their own pancakes.  He informed me that he is a wonderful pancake maker and he can really flip a pancake like an expert. I promised him that we will do it on a weekend and we did.

Since he was so interested in pancakes, I decided to wear one of my many hats as a Mother (the educator hat) and explained to him that a pancake is a thin, flat, round cake made from a batter and  cooked on a hot frying pan.  We made the pancake batter together (me explaining to him each of the ingredient used) and my little Prince managed to keep the kitchen table pretty clean while doing most of it by himself...haha!

Here's a photo of my little Prince's pancakes.  He really did a superb job, I must say.  My little Princess ate quite a number of pieces of it and she thought it was from Mc Donalds...

My little Prince...we will be doing this again real soon....

Hainanese Chicken Chop

We have been eating chicken schnitzel and chicken parma for a couple of weeks now and we are quite sian (bored) with it.  My other half was thinking of the Hainanese Chicken Chop which we were so in love with when we were in Malaysia.  So, we decided to try out hands on it after I made several phone calls to my darling Aunty.

Hainanese Chicken Chop is not from Hainan.  I don't think the Hainanese ever heard of this dish.  This humble dish originated from Malaysia and Singapore during the British times.  According to my Grandma, a lot of Hainanese become cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, etc during the British colonial days. These superb cooks / chefs came out with the own local version of the chicken schnitzel.  I remember the good old days when my cousins who studied overseas will come back and correct us all whenever we the children will beg our parent to bring us for "chicken chop" and these cousins of ours will say "No, No, No...its chicken schnitzel, silly" or "No, No, No....its called a chicken cutlet".  We really didn't care if its called a schnitzel or a cutlet...to us, its good old chicken chop and its really sedap (delicious).

Firstly, we crumb the chicken exactly like how a chicken schnitzel is crumbed. Then we proceed in making the potato wedges which we deep fried. Now..the sauce is the one which makes this dish special and it consists of tomato sauce, HP sauce, worchestershire sauce, oyster sauce, chicken booster, seasonings and lastly thicken it with cornflour solution.

Some people eat this with rice and some just eats it by itself.  Here's our humble Hainanese Chicken Chop.

We are so happy to watch our 2 kiddos enjoying themselves and asking for me.  This really brings me back to the good old days when I was just a kid like my 2 children and asking for more too....

Hokkien Noodles (Hokkien Mee)

Back in December 2012, I wrote about Hokkien Mee (Singapore style). Today, I will write about Hokkien Mee (Malaysian style).  Some people call this as Hokkien Char Mee.  This one dish meal consists of yellow noodles (hokkien mee) and it is braised in a fragrant thick dark sauce which is made of soy sauce, dark sauce, pork stock and seasonings. You can add in fishcake, fishball, chinese cabbage, seafood, etc.

We decided to cook this 1-dish meal as we were yearning for some Malaysian delight on this cold and wet day.  My 2 kiddos were overjoyed when they heard that we are cooking Black Hokkien Mee....

Here's a photo of our black hokkien mee.

Black Hokkien Mee is really "beeeeest" with sambal belacan...

Silver Needle Noodles ( Lou Shee Fun)

Silver Needle Noodles....its a much better translation compared to what my family used to call it.. rat noodles...haha!  I guess the reason why its call rat noodles is due to its shape...it looks like a rat's tail.  Lou Shee Fun is made from rice flour and it can be made into soup noodles, stir-fried noodles or claypot style.  When I was young, whenever I see my Grandaunt taking a claypot out from the cabinet, I will shout...lou shee fun, lou shee fun, lou shee fun...

Moving forward, now, my family loves lou shee fun too and I cooked it my Grandaunt's style. I don't even have enough time to clean the claypot as my children were asking for their lunch, even my DH pinched some. So...here's a quick snapshot of my lou shee fun before it was whisked off.  Please ignore the mess around the claypot...just focus on the lou shee fun....

This is a popular dish in Malaysia and Singapore.