Welcome, sweet september ^^

I've had my eyes on these sweets for months now! Every time I visit the indian restaurant for our usual banana leaf rice, I've been wanting to try some.. but always putting it off because of the big packing/quantity (and price!) for a first try.

Well, these yummies are called palkova (pal cake), so they tell me.. a kind of milk burfi. And how would I know that they are yummy? Well, I finally took the plunge and bought some yesterday after our banana leaf rice dinner (^^).

Unlike the more common pink coconut candies where you can always buy in small quantities, these milk candies are pre-packed and sold in plastic tubs/containers.. and they are very much pricier. But I feel they are worth the price, now that I've tasted some. (^^)

They taste very smooth and milky, and almost melt in the mouth.. except for a touch of coarseness before it all melts on the tongue. I wasn't sure why, till I googled some recipes and found that there's most likely some semolina (sugee/rava) meal in the sweets. Anyway, they are perfectly sweet.. not tooth-achingly so, unlike some indian sweets (^^||). And best of all, there's no trace of spice.. just the goodness of milk ^^.

I've googled some recipes online and it doesn't look very complicated.. but I think I'll leave this to the experts and stick to store-bought ones ^^!

Anyways, if you still can't imagine how it tastes like, just think milk fudge ^^. A very very delicious milk fudge! (^^)

End of the road..

It's been one happy roller-coaster month of endless, delicious food and sweets! And I've probably piled on quite a few "unhappy" pounds ^^|| Now to work it off.. by baking! *gulp* just joking! (^^)

To bid adieu, here's some rustic malay sweets/desserts to feast your eyes on.. simple, honest to goodness stuff (^^) And also a picture of my all time favorite finally, a mini version of kuih bakar.. the pistachio-colored, well-burnt and caramelised cake, right in the middle. The other two sweets are new discoveries this ramadan, a gummy-spongy cake with pineapple filling and a mung bean kuih.

Now, don't you think that this is the ugliest kuih/cake/pudding ever?! Yucky color.. dark, murky, mouse-y brown! Definitely not something you'd pick up when there's so many brightly colored cakes to choose from! I was not convinced when the seller said that this sweet is "SEDAP" (delicious).. it's so plain and ugly.. nice try ^^||. But I gave it a shot anyways.. and I was hooked.. mmm, sedap! This mung/green bean jelly/pudding-like sweet is an acquired taste, I think. But if you don't mind the "green" taste of mung bean, you'll love this! (^^) I love it! Fatty hubby too! I'm going to miss this a lot.. 

sweet and savoury delights galore

my favorite food stall ~ meat, fish, curries, veggies ~ i like them all ^^

Well, my happy (ramadan) run officially ends today (><). But I made good while the sun shined! And I'm thankful for the one whole month of delicious food ^^.. and not having to cook! (^^)

Now I need to work my fat ass off! Selamat hari raya aidilfitri, happy holidays and happy weekend, everyone! (^^)

Pasar ramadan everywhere!

It's that time of the year again! The fasting month observed by muslims before they celebrate Hari Raya or Eid.. and THAT means lots of pasar ramadan (food bazaar) everywhere offering a myriad of goodies in the afternoons for a whole month! Yay! (^^)

fried rice, fried noodles, chicken, fish, veg.. a buffet spread of almost every malay/asian food you can think of!  

beef or chicken murtabak, anyone?

In my neighbourhood alone, there's at least 3 food bazaars nearby! Albeit on a smaller scale ^^ As such, there's really no need to cook dinner these days! For the past few days.. ok, maybe a week.. or two ^^|| (save for the day where I was inspired to make nami's honey pork belly, using chicken), I've been feasting on my favorites.. ayam masak merah (loosely translated as chicken in red sauce ~ which tastes sweet, spicy and tomato-ey) and deep-fried catfish with sambal.. and some.. almost everyday. (^^||)

grilled marinated squid and fish wrapped in banana leaf

grilled squid .. yums!

And there's always new sweets to discover at the pasar ramadans! There's hasn't been any need to bake at all these days! A whole new world of sweets has opened up and is available daily just round the corner! (^^) And one of my best finds, is akok. Well burnt and caramelized all over, it's a luscious, gorgeous little sweet/dessert originating from kelantan.. think soft kuih bakar and wobbly portuguese egg tart minus the crust. So so good ^^!

a new favorite ~ akok ^^

How can one not lose one's mind at the pasar ramadan??!.. there's so much to choose from.. everything looks and smells fascinating, appetising and delicious! No sane person can leave unscathed!

And well, I lost it today! I was "enticed" into buying 3 mini kuih bakar (burnt cake?) (sorry, no pictures ^^|| ate all up on the drive home).. mixed noodles with beef curry.. rice with ayam masak merah and vege.. a piece of catfish.. and a piece of deep-fried chicken (sorry, bad pictures!).. for a ONE-person dinner! You must be thinking if I've gone mad? Yes, that probably explains it! I'm kicking myself as I write this (^^||) Lesson learnt: NEVER visit a pasar ramadan when you are hungry!!! Looks like most of tonight's dinner will be tomorrow's lunch!

mixed noodles (beehoon + kway teow) with beef curry wrapped in banana leaf ~ so so bad for my arteries!

But you know what? Some habits die hard. When I do visit the food bazaars again.. I most probably will not remember any (regrets?? who?? what??) of this ^^.. and splurge!!! It's like being let loose in a candy store, or a buffet, or for some (like moi), a baking supplies store ^^! Yes, I love this time of the year! (^^)

p.s you don't need to be a muslim/malay to enjoy these delicacies.. food is color blind ^^ 

Shirako, cod milt ~ Rakuzen

Finally had the chance to celebrate fatty hubby's 40th birthday today! (^^) He was too distracted and bogged down with work to do anything on the actual day.

The big FOUR ZERO ~ a major milestone (^^||).. it scares me (mine's right round.. er, the "far" corner), but at the same time, it's exciting (?!) times for us too. At 40 (I mean he's 40.. I'm "29".. ok, maybe "31"?), we "had" to get ourselves in debt (after many, many years of being debt-free and free-spending) by buying a house that's probably too big for just the two of us! Though I'm excited about the new place.. I also can't quite bear the thought of leaving (selling) my little "almost-perfect" (my darling piggies live in the same block) apartment! What did we get ourselves into, right?

Anyways, enough about that.. this post is not about our dilemma.. but about something interesting we had at a japanese restaurant today. Shirako, cod milt.. cod what? Yes, that's what I thought when I saw that on the seasonal menu at rakuzen's. But I conveniently ignored "milt" and conveniently thought that it was some deep-fried cod fillet something.. The picture on the menu sure looked appetising, like succulent tempura oyster or something like it..
     

Looks just like oyster tempura, doesn't it? It's served with drizzled mayo in worcestershire sauce (tastes almost like a kushikatsu dip)..
   

It was the last thing to arrive and we were full by then..  But I love cod fillets.. so I stuffed some in anyways. It didn't taste quite like fish.. rather, it was soft and creamy.. which was rather odd. Fatty hubby had some but said nothing, of course. So I took a bite off to take a look.. whoa!!!
  

White fusili??? What's with the white coils or springlike thing??? And that's when the word "milt" striked me! Oops.. Fatty was perfectly fine with his "tempura" before.. but after seeing the "coils", he refused to have any! (^^||) I thought it might be some kind of intestinal thing or possibly roe.. It doesn't taste bad or smelled pungent.. it's pretty bland actually. Not rubbery at all, just soft and creamy.. like eating tasteless fish roe or slightly springy tofu.

Well, we googled "milt" in the car, after leaving rakuzen.. found out what it was.. and fatty's totally put off! Of course I had packed the rest of our milt tempura home! I wanted to show piggies, of course (^^)!

In case you are wondering what shirako or milt is.. this is not for the faint-hearted *beware!*.. check out the write ups by serious eats, the kitchn and loneleeplanet. Read at your own risk! You may be put off permanently!!! I was fine till I saw pictures of raw shirako ~ I feel "iggy" right now.. (^^||)

Anyways, we had a great time at rakuzen.. it's one of the more consistent, interesting and reasonably-priced japanese restaurant chains around. And the set dinners that we had ~ salmon sashimi and beef teppanyaki ~ was absolutely delicious! And the deep-fried oat breaded tempura shirako was INTERESTING, to say the least! An eye-opener.. we definitely learned something new today ^^.

And in case you don't already know, shirako or milt.. is soft roe.. otherwise known as fish sperm.. oh, please don't squirm.. (^^)

Nasi dagang @ tg lumpur

I'm glad we made plans to go back to my hometown, kuantan over the weekend. The haze in the city has been really bad.

Feels good to be home even if it was for just a day (^^). It's really not that far. Just a 3-hour drive, point to point.. that's from our apartment to my aunt's house, including a stopover at the petrol station and mcdonald's ^^. 

photos shot with iphone 4s ~ not too bad, eh?

Like I said, this has been a really short trip, so we didn't do much.. except eat! As usual, aunt cooked to feed an army! So we had yummy home cooked food.. and extra to take home too^^. As stuffed as we were, we somehow managed to squeeze in a late "tea" at warung pak ali, tanjung lumpur, a quaint, rustic and charming little place facing the south china sea.  

Of course, tea is not the reason to visit warung pak ali's.. it the nasi dagang, of course! This is probably the only place in kuantan that serves this dish at 5.30pm till late. Nasi dagang ~ rice with fish curry, is a speciality of the east coast. In my hometown, the rice used is usually white, but in the state of kelantan, they usually use red/wild purple rice.

Nasi dagang rice is cooked with fenugreek seeds, sliced ginger, shallots, lemongrass and coconut milk to give it it's unique flavor and fragrance. At pak ali's place, you will find the rice more heavily flavored with coconut milk than at any other place in kuantan. The fish curry is also generously spiced and cooked with coconut milk. Fish is always fresh here. They don't open if they can't get hold of good fresh fish. The no-frills nasi dagang here is almost 4-5 times cheaper than in the city!

dreamy, luscious nasi dagang

By the way, the people in tanjung lumpur were mostly fishermen (hence the fresh fish, but you will not find many doing this these days), and the place used to be separated from the "mainland" kuantan by a river. One had to take a boat to get to and fro for the longest time. Now, a bridge connects tanjung lumpur to town in just 5 minutes (maybe less) by car! It's really not that far away.. but to the very young me then, it was a world away! (^^)   

"photoshopped" using pixlr ~  check out the HDR effect

Anyways, if you would like to try this special east coast malay food, after 5.30pm, of course.. do give warung pak ali's a try. It's in the same vicinity as restoran kamunlau and the ikan bakar restaurants. Otherwise, check out warong pak su and mak su also in tanjung lumpur. They have decent nasi dagang and satar.. and their operating days and hours are more regular too! (^^)

sweets from les deux garcons

I'm horrified at what fatty hubby did today! 

look what came in a box

His very nice colleagues threw him an early birthday celebration at the office with little cakes from les deux garcons patisserie.. And you know what he did? He told them to pack it up after blowing out the candle! He's so socially challenged.. I dare not think what his colleagues think of him!

prettiness deconstructed 

I can only hope that they didn't notice since they were also having breakfast at the same time.

He says the cakes looked too pretty to be eaten.. and he wanted to bring it home for me ^^. I'm not sure if I should be flattered.. after what he did. (^^||)

This is La diva ~ a yummy framboisee.. and almost as pretty as daily delicious's. (^^) I like the prettily colored layers and the very tangy sweet raspberry flavor of this cake. But I don't find it diva-esque enough..

And this is Le palladio ~ the most celebrated (expensive) cake in les deux garcons! Made up of an almond tart shell layered with joconde, and filled with vanilla ganache and white truffle (?!) mascarpone.. Rich, creamy and luxurious.. An acquired taste, no? Fatty hubby likes this best. I don't get this at all! At first bite, a strong, distinctive and pungent odor hits you ~ I thought durians! But white truffle can't possibly taste like durian, can it???!! That's not how I imagine truffle to be! It cannot! Anyways, this taste mellows and unfolds into a rich and creamy flavor which is pretty ok. But the first bite.. beware!

I find this creation most fascinating! I have no idea why! And you can tell by the many pictures I took of it ^^. Le bel ami is made up of chocolate cassis mousse, cassis cremeux and joconde base. You can taste the tartness of blackberries in every bite. I find this very pleasing ^^!

A most petite (as tiny as a button) macaron that followed the cakes home (^^). I later found out it dropped out from the top of la duchesse.. it was part of the deco ^^.

La Duchesse ~ made up of earl grey biscuit tendre, milk chocolate ganache and earl grey mousseline. This is no shy earl grey.. it shows ^^ very unique. This is one of the nicest tea-based desserts I've ever had.

And of course, the very dark L'amer ~ made of a shell of chocolate sacher, and valrhona 72% araguani mousse. A chocolate lover's dream come true ^^ I didn't think I like the "dark" side.. but I do (^^)

All this is so very nice.. thanks to hubby's dear colleagues. It's really thoughtful and sweet of them to remember hubby's birthday. I guess he must be doing something right at work. (^^)

And because of his social ineptness, I had the chance to enjoy the luscious sweet delights too (^^). Thank you.