Recipe: Shrimp Egg Foo Yong / Prawn Omelette

This is the type of Chinese dish that I love but will hesitate to order in a restaurant because it is so easy to make. It is so yummy and so good with rice.

I heat up the oil until its smoking hot before pouring the omelette mixture into the hot wok. It was real pleasure watching the omelette puffing up. I managed to take a picture of it. ^.^

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This is my recipe:

Ingredients:

Pink, fresh prawns

8-10 large fresh prawns
3 eggs
1 small brown onion
1 bunch of spring onion - sliced into 3 cm in length
salt to taste
3 tbsp oil

Method:

Fluffing up in hot oil

1. Cut the onion into halves. Then slice it into even half-rings.
2. Pour a tablespoon of oil into the wok. Cook the onions until it is slightly golden in color. Dish out and leave aside.
3. Break eggs in a bowl. Add salt and whisk it up with chopsticks. Add fresh prawns, cooked onions and spring onions into the omelette mixture.
4. Heat up remaining oil in a wok. Leave it on high heat until you begin to see smoke rising up. Pour the omelette and enjoy the beautiful sight of eggs puffing up. Lower down the heat to medium and cook for 30 seconds. Turn around to cook the other side. It is ready when the prawns are cooked.
5. Serve with rice.

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Yummy prawns

Oven-baked pork spare ribs with crispy garlic

Spare ribs with garlic

There's something about eating spare-ribs. It brings out the primitive side out of me. There is no way of eating politely when it comes to meat on bone. Especially the juiciest part of meat normally comes with bone. I.e lamb racks. I.e spare ribs.

I served the spare ribs with white rice and some chinese vegetables stir-fry. I picked one spare rib with my chopsticks. It became quite a chore as I find it hard to balance the rib on the chopsticks while I chew off the meat from the bone. It was so annoying because the meat kept slipping from the chopsticks. Lol.

My bare fingers then came to the rescue. Some food are just meant to be eaten with hands. There is just something about eating ribs with your hands. It is just so... carnivorous and comforting at the same time. Lol. Oh yeah, and the crispy garlic went so well with the rice...

My recipe is very simple, I just marinated the ribs for a couple of hours (overnight would be better) and then just bake in a hot oven till cooked. The whole house smelled so nice while the ribs are sizzling in the oven. I looove it!

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Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kg pork spare ribs
5 cloves of fat garlic - chopped
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Marinate the pork with all ingredients. Leave it in the fridge for at least an hour to marinate.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius.
3. Line marinated ribs in a tray. Reserve the garlic for later. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. Turn the ribs around, baste with marinade. Bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Turn the ribs, baste with marinade. Place garlic on top of the ribs. Bake for another 5 minutes.
6. Serve immediately. Great with rice.



Note: If I have 5 spice powder, I would have added about a teaspoon in the marinade. It would give another dimension to the ribs, but it is already good as it is.

Recipe: Long beans with Sambal Belachan

See that dark parts there? That small bits are so flavourful that I only need an itsy bitsy bit to eat with your plan rice. I kept the veges crisp though, as there is nothing worse than soggy stir-fry vegetables. This is a Malaysian dish, using belachan paste, dried shrimps and chillies.

Well, I used crispy prawn chillies that I bought from supermarkets, once I found a good brand, I tend to stick to it. I recommend DeliChef Crispy Prawn Chilli. It is so yummy and moreish.

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This is my recipe:

(Click for larger pic)

Ingredients:

300g long beans - cut into 3cms in length
1 tbsp dried shrimp - chopped
1 tbsp crispy prawn chillies
1/2 tbsp of belachan paste
2 cloves garlic - chopped finely
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste


Method:

1. Heat up oil in a wok under high heat. Add dried shrimps and fry for 4 minutes or until crispy. Remove and leave aside.
2. Saute garlic in the remaining oil until golden brown.
3. Add belachan paste and stir well until fragrant.
4. Add crispy prawn chillies and fry for 30 seconds.
5. Add beans and water and fry for 3 minutes.
6. Serve warm with rice.

Recipe: Braised Pork Belly with Boiled Eggs

Pork Belly with Eggs

The lasagna post would have to wait for now. Last night, I made braised pork belly with boiled eggs for dinner. It is sinfully delicious and easy to cook, the hardest thing is probably the waiting time, as this dish normally takes more than 2 hours to achieve the most tender piece of pork belly.

Eaten with warm rice and a few specks of hot chillies, it is the ultimate comfort Chinese home-style food. I could eat this everyday, which is probably not a good idea if I want to live longer.

Belly fat. Yum.

The best part would be the belly fat, it is so very tasty and tender melt-in-your-mouth kind. I love to cut a small piece of egg white + egg yolk + pork belly with fat and scoop it all up with rice. Your mouth and taste senses will be treated to the ultimate orgasm for sure.

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This is my recipe:


Ingredients:

500g pork belly - cut into cubes
4 cloves garlic
4 boiled eggs
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1/2 tbsp soya sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar
2 star anise
1 cup water


Method:

Place all ingredients except the eggs in a pan and let it simmer for 1.5 hours. Add the eggs and let it simmer for another 30 minutes or until the meat is tender.

Recipe: Lou Shu Fan (Rat Tail Noodles)

Lou Shu Fan

Lou shu fan are translated into 'rat tail noodles' because the shape of the noodles resemble the tails of rats. Sounds icky, doesn't it? But don't be put off by the name, as the noodles are truly tasty - chewy and gelatinous in texture.

I was taught on how to prepare this dish by my mother, many years ago while I was young. It reminds me of home now that I'm in a foreign country. I was thrilled to come across this noodles in Footscray Market. Although it cost approximately 20 times than the ones sold in Malaysia, I bought the noodles without thinking twice. It paid off in the end, as the result was a comforting and satisfying dish that brings back flashes of sweet memories.

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This is my mom's recipe:

Ingredients:

400g lou shu fan/rat tail noodles
100g minced pork
150g choy sum - cut into 3 inches length
3 cloves of garlic - chopped finely
1 tbsp of dark soya sauce
1.5 tbsp of soya sauce
1/2 tbsp of oil
1/4 cup of water
1/4 tsp of sugar
salt to taste


Method:

1. Saute garlic in oil until dark golden in color.
2. Add minced pork and stir well for few minutes until the pork is cooked.
3. Add the noodles and the sauces, salt and sugar and stir well until combined. Add water and
let it simmer for 3 minutes.
4. Add the choy sum and stir well. Leave it until the vegetables are wilted and cooked.
5. Serve immediately.

Rat tail noodles

Roast Duck with Fragrant Garlic Rice

Home made garlic and ginger rice with roast duck

You didn't think that I made that roast duck, did you? Of course not! Lol. I felt like having roast duck today, but I was feeling really reluctant to venture out of my warm home into the dark and freezing night. And so, I asked J to buy roast duck from our favourite suburb Hong Kong restaurant and I made our own fragrant special rice to go with it.

While he was away buying the duck, I prepared the rice. To make the rice extra special, I made ginger and garlic oil. I simply minced 4 cloves of garlic and a small knob of ginger finely and microwave it in the oven with a little bit of oil until crispy. Before cooking the rice, I simply mix in the fragrant mixture of garlic and ginger with a little bit of salt. (Btw, I normally cook my rice in the microwave, it is really easy and simple to wash up later)

By the time J got back, the kitchen smelled wonderfully of the rice and we were ready to tuck in!

Half of a roasted duck for $11. A bargain, I must say.

Succulent and juicy

There's a little container of sweetish salty sauce that came with the roast duck. It went marvelously well with the fragrant rice and the delicious duck. I also chopped up some fiery red chillies to go with it as being the Malaysian I am, I need heat in my food. Hah!

Our dinner with white wine

That's the sweetish savory sauce in the green bowl. It was quite mild in taste and went really well the the duck and rice.

Pardon the laptop. We were eating and watching TVB series in our living room with the heater on. I must add that the wine kept me warm, too, though it did not really have any impact on J. I am kinda alcohol-intolerant. Haha!

Can you already tell that it was a really enjoyable dinner even though how simple it was? I am a happy gal today.

Recipe: Stir-fry Fragrant Garlic Stems

Garlic stems with fried garlic

Garlic Stems.

Does the name sounds intriguing to you? The name of the vegetable already describes the vegetables. They are lovely and sweet - long, thin and absolutely crunchy green stems with subtle hints of garlic flavour.

Have you tried this vegetable before? If you have not, I recommend that you should. It is very tasty. I used garlic stems in my mee siam and they added another dimension to the noodles, somewhat different from the normal and bland long beans.


I know that they do sell it in Malaysia because I saw it in the morning wet markets. I believe that they are imported from China - just like the ones sold here in Melbourne. I introduced the vegetables to my family in Malaysia recently and my brothers love it - and they are both do not like vegetables.

Try it on your loved ones who you think need to eat more vegetables - my guess is that they do not need to be coaxed to eat them (unless they hate garlic, of course.. or they are really, really anti-vegetables. =)

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This is my recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic - chopped finely
200g of garlic stems - sliced into 3 cm
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp water
1 tsp oil
salt to taste

Method

1. Fry garlic in oil until fragrant and golden in colour.

2. Add the garlic stems and mix well.

3. Add water, wine and salt to taste and let it simmer for 3 minutes until cooked.

4. Serve hot with rice

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This dish goes great with white rice. The fragrance of the wine and the sweetness from the fried garlic together with the crunchy vegetables made this an appetizing dish.

You may add fresh prawns to this dish. Prawns and garlic are the perfect match in food heaven. =)

Spicy Chicken @ Dessert House, Chinatown & The Aftermath

Spicy Chicken with Rice $7.90

Deep-fried chicken ribs with salt and pepper

The chicken taste as scrummy as it looks. There were plenty of piping hot crispy deep-fried chicken ribs coated with salt, black pepper, garlic, onions and bell peppers - simple but yet very tasty. A rather popular in-house dish (evident from similar dishes on most tables).

As this is an eatery managed by Hong Kong people (please correct me if I am wrong here), I can understand why the food is saltier than what J and I are normally used to. When I was in Hong Kong with my family a few years ago, we noticed that many of the dishes were saltier than the ones served in Malaysia.


Also, when I dined out with my Hong Kong friends in Mlebourne, I noticed that some of them always drizzled a few rounds of soya sauce on their rice even though there's already some on it (as you can see on the pic above). And it never fails to amuse me to watch them do that. LOL

Black pepper reigns supreme

The dish does live up to its name (which is quite a rare occurence here), the liberal amount of cracked black pepper brings the fried chicken to an unprecedented ooopmh, J was glad there's cold water within reach. He walked out a happy customer with a full belly.

Alas! Within a couple of hours, J felt extremely thirsty - an indication of MSG overload. Even while gulping down water between each outburst of overbearing thirst - resulting in bloated belly due to gallons of water intake - the whole ordeal lasted through the night into the early hours next day. It was agonizing. He could hardly sleep that night. =(

Looks like this will be first and last time he would order this dish. On the other hand, Dessert House always serve value-for-money and tasty food, we will definitely be back again as we never encounter much problems with their food before - perhaps we could do well sticking to our old favourites. =)

Dessert House
Mid City Arcade, Chinatown
Melbourne CBD

Free lunch at CBD & Spicy Szechuan Noodles

Coca Cola Lunchbox - cute!

While walking around the city today, J noticed a small crowd in the middle of the street. He saw lots of people walking away carrying a small, bright red box. Bursting with curiosity, he joined the queue and received a red box too. It was in fact, a lunch box containing healthy munchies!!

OoO.. An unfamiliar design

Coca Cola Zero!!

Is it right to consider Coca-Cola Zero as a healthy drink? I mean, it contains zero sugar, so that means less carbs right? Of course, nothing's better than plain water. But ugh, I only like my water cold. I always prefer Diet Coke or Coca Cola Zero (for now, haha) to regular Coke anyway. Always. But restaurants in Malaysia hardly ever offer Diet Cokes anyway, I wonder why, surely there's a market for it? I mean I know that diet soft drinks are more expensive than regular soft drinks in Malaysia but surely one wouldn't mind paying extra few cents for it? I know I wouldn't..

I mean there are more people, especially ladies who are health-conscious nowadays. I'm not sure if I'm contradicting myself by saying diet soft-drinks are better than regular soft-drinks, but for a person like myself who likes sweet, bubbly, gassy drinks (such as Coca-Cola), and be able to enjoy them once a while without feeling guilty, I say let's serve more light soft-drinks in eateries!! Be it mamak stalls, trendy cafes or posh restaurants! Haha.

And no, this is not a paid review of Coca-Cola Zero, although I wish it is.

Pumpkin, egg mayo and salad wrap

J said that the salad wrap was pretty average, but that's because he's not a pumpkin-lover. Still, it's healthy and fresh, what's more the box could be re-used again, such as storing biscuits or sandwishes for pinics.. thus, for the conclusion: Nice!!

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Spicy Szechuan Noodles at Red Silk

Here's yet another review of Red Silk Bar and Restaurant. Can you tell already that this is the ultimate favourite lunch spot for J (for those who have been reading the blog since the very beginning, which was just very recently)? He never gets tired of the food there, even when I tell him to try other eateries in the city because I (means the readers-lah) need more variety! SIGH. Wait till I come back to Melbourne next month, then there will be more food reviews on other eateries.. actually not so much also, maybe more towards my home-cooking, because I like to cook a lot. And eat a lot also. Another big SIGH.


I can understand him also, it was just like how I can never get tired of the nasi lemak stall at my primary and secondary school's canteen, even after eating there nearly everyday (sometimes 2-3 meals a day from the same nasi lemak stall (before class, during recess and after school lunch) for 11 frickin' years. And I still dream about her 'chilli masak kentang goreng' until today. Talking about loyalty man. Old habits die hard. Especially when it revolves around good food. Oh yeah~

Ok, let's get on to the food.

Spicy Szechuan Noodles with Vanilla Ice-cream and Red Beans Drink $7.90
Generous amounts of minced pork in spicy sauce on a bed of springy wanton noodles.

Ice-cream

Doesn't the ice-cream looked luscious? The drink was very rich and creamy ... those with a sweet-tooth will definitely like this one! That is if you like red beans of course... I'm more of a 'pulut hitam - black glutinous rice' gal.

Noodles

What makes this difference with Dan Dan Mian? The salty and sourish preserved pickles. Very appetizing and somewhat refreshing to the tastebuds..

Piles of springy egg noodles - Yummo

Very al-dente, the wanton noodles are of a good quality. Eaten with the saucy spicy pork together with the crunhiness of tangy preserved pickles, it was a wonderful lunch, quite different from the usual Dan Dan Mian and wanton mee with BBQ pork.

Are you bored of Red Silk reviews already? Sorry if you are, but (Oh no, not again!!) there will be more to come. Be patient with me yah? Haha. But for those who got some extra free time and there's nothing better to do, you could read my other reviews on Red Silk...

Seafood Tomyam Noodles
Combination Seafood Noodles

Red Silk Restaurant and Bar
101, 1st Fl 200 Bourke St,
Melbourne 3000
03-9663 9922

P.S.: For those who are really free, and wish to do something good today (haha) maybe you could spend some time helping me on this: I have problems with my photos in blogger. After uploading them straight from my computer, I always find that the pics are blurer than what they are supposed to be. I've tried minimizing the pics, but the pics still look bad. Very frustrating for me. Does anyone know why? What should I do? THANKS!!

Dessert House, Chinatown

Contrary to its name, regular customers frequent the restaurant not for desserts but for satisfyingly delicious Chinese meals.

Lemongrass Chicken on Rice $7.90

Yet another popular Chinese eatery in the heart of CBD, this restaurant is packed with young university Asian students - all the time.

Why? Really simple really.

That the food is good and cheap.

And that, is all that matters. =D

It is a norm for the waiters/waitresses to take away your unfinished drinks and meals if they think you have been there for a 'reasonably long time'. This is to accommodate new hungry customers who are queueing outside during busy lunch/dinner hours. Be prepared to gobble up your food and leave fast!

Pan-fried Lemongrass Thigh Fillet Chicken, Fried Egg and Shallots
with White Rice

The chicken is extremely juicy and tasty. It is well-marinated, fully infused with lemongrass flavour. Not only that, it is a rather generous piece of chicken fillet and there were plenty of white rice to go with it.

Absolutely delicious.

Crispy Fried Egg on Rice Drizzled with Soy Sauce

There's also a delightful complementary fried egg with the meal. It is just an added bonus, like chicken drumsticks in curry laksa. boiled eggs in curry puffs and omelette in nasi lemak. One do not expect it to come with the meal, but will accept most willingly and happily when served.

It is a great place to have your fix of comforting Chinese meal, but do keep in mind that you will need to finish your food quickly during busy hours.


Dessert House
Mid City Arcade, Chinatown
Melbourne CBD

Red Silk, Bourke Street

Red Silk Restaurant and Bar is J's favourite spot during lunch simply because of its affordable price yet big servings of food.

The menu mainly consists of Chinese one-dish meals (ie stir-fry on rice, stir-fry with noodles, etc) for easy decision-making and quick no-fuss tummy-filling for Asian students who are the main patrons here.

One day, after my class in the city, I came here with my friends for lunch. I wanted something with seafood and so Combination Seafood Noodles is the one to go.

Combination Seafood Noodles $8.90

As you would have noticed in the pictures, the noodles are a bit burnt on the edges giving it a slight bitterish and dry texture. Sauce would have save the noodles but alas, there are none to be seen.

Big red prawn

However, the combination seafood stir-fry is delicious. There are soft, juicy chicken tenderloins, calamaris, fish cakes, fresh prawns and plenty of bok-choys. Yummy!


* Note to Malaysians* Not only the steaks here are humungous, the Asian food served here are massive too. If you are a small eater, this plate of noodles could be split among two people and would satiate them satisfactorily.


Red Silk Restaurant and Bar
101, 1st Fl 200 Bourke Street Melbourne 3000
03 9663 9922