NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY

I had my first lou yee sang at Ti Chen, Saujana Golf & Country Club. Fresh, succulent salmon with a variety of freshly julienned vegetables and colourful crispy yam strips, peanuts, crackers and many more, topped with a delicious concoction of plum sauce and sesame oil.

Absolutely beautiful, absolutely auspicious!

# – The manager of Ti Chen explaining to us what Yee Sang is eaten for.

If you’re not a salmon person, you could also choose to have abalone, jellyfish or even a vegetarian version. Price of the yee sang dishes start from RM38.

# – Tossing yee sang, higher the better. HUAT AHHHH!

Ti Chen recently underwent a refurbishment and what a transformation it has made!

# – Entrance to Ti Chen.

# – For those that can’t read chinese ;)

The new look is a breath of fresh air – modern & elegant and yet still very oriental. Plush seatings dotted the establishment with luxurious wooden panels segmenting the space for more privacy and large windows allowing a lot of natural light in.

# – The waiting area is comfortable.

# – Part of the dining area.

Of course, the view of the golf course was also very welcoming. Green, calm and tranquil.

# – Good view.

As for the food, Ti Chen did not disappoint at all.

# – The Roasted Chicken with Dong Guai was divine. With crispy aromatic skin and juicy, flavourful & silky flesh. Even the chicken breasts were tender, something I believe only a very skillful and experienced Chef could achieve.

# – The Stir-fried Prawns with Seasoned Salt was so good, I had more than one helping. The prawns were so crispy I could practically devour the entire thing – head, shell and all.

# – I really enjoyed the Steamed Red Snapper with Superior Soya Sauce too. The fish was fresh & flaky, with the delicious soya sauce delicately permeating the flesh. It’s a very clean-tasting dish, tasty and healthy all at the same time.

# – Next on the table – Braised Sea Cucumber with Fish Maw, Dried Oysters and Fatt Choy. The fish maw was of premium quality so they are very different from those that are normally deep-fried into puffs. According to the manager, this kind of premium fish maw is very good for the health of the lungs and for people with asthmatic symptoms. I of course, had quite a lot of them…hehe. Flavoursome and not at all cloying. Absolutely luxurious & befitting of a celebratory meal.

# – Of course, chinese new year must eat rice also so always have rice in life :) This is Chef Special “Loh Mai Fun”, basically glutinouse rice steamed with dried shrimps wrapped in aromatic lotus leaves. The rice was cooked just right, it was neither grainy nor too pudgy (for lack of better word). I absolutely enjoyed it, it was really delicious eaten with the Braised Sea Cucumber with Fish Maw, Dried Oysters and Fatt Choy too.

# – We ended lunch with a soft mochi filled with red bean paste. The skin was thin and the filling was not too sweet. It was a nice finale to a superb lunch.

All these dishes are packaged into the Pearl Set with 8-course dishes, which at RM888++ comes with a complimentary bottle of Misterio Cabernet Sauvignon.

There are also other sets; The Jade Set at RM988++ comes with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 years while the Golden Set is priced at RM1,398++ and comes with a bottle of Hennessy VSOP. Lastly, the Emperor Set at RM2288++ comes with a bottle of Singleton Single Malt Whisky 12 years.

So looking for a nice place to have a good CNY feast with your loved ones? Check out Ti Chen.

It is open Tuesday – Sunday from 12.00pm to 2.30pm (lunch) and 6.30pm to 10.30pm (dinner). For reservations, call 03 7840 5502 or email dine@thesaujana.com.

Ti Chen,
The Saujana Golf and Country Club,
Jalan Lapangan Terbang SAAS,
40150 Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: 03-7840 5502
Email: dine@thesaujana.com

Sorry been very busy during chinese new year. Wanted to blog but a bit difficult, am always moving around either on foot or in the car. But it’s the 3rd day of CNY today and finally I could sit down and breathe properly (and blog).

I cooked reunion dinner for my immediate family. It’s my first time attempting chinese dishes at this scale! Suffice to say I was worried but they turned out fairly well. Only the sauces were too spicy :P

Got TV crew from MHI shooting my prep for the reunion dinner too…it was awkward. So embarrassed when I was trying to put up a pro face while cutting chillies but they kept flying off the chopping board onto the floor -_-

# – Wah, got TV crew somemore!

These were what I cooked:

# – Chilled drunken chicken, braised mushrooms & tofu, steamed fish, tomato prawns, mixed vegetables and marinaded cucumbers. Pork & apple soup not in picture. Yee Sang bought one from Jusco.

The first day of CNY started out really hot and then it poured! I don’t think I’ve ever remember any rain on CNY. And traffic in KL was surprisingly heavy too. So unusual. Perhaps all the talk about this year being a water dragon and all might be true.

# – On the way to a relative’s house with my baby brother. We tried to take this picture about 15 times because I didn’t know where the lens on my phone is. Our eyes kept looking at different directions, in the end…this is the best we could do :P

My dad has recently acquired an Android phone and he’s like a full convert. Good daddy.

# – Here, he’s trying to get one of my uncles to play blackjack with him on his phone. Uncle was like, “Aiyo how to see!? I want real cards!”.

I went to see my maternal granny, uncle, aunty and cousins and their children on the 2nd day. Always happy to see them, most genuine, caring, happy & considerate people I know. My elder cousin brother & his wife are expecting and I’m so happy for them :)

Played chor tai dee with my cousins and brothers, won RM6.80.

While we’re leaving, my popo shyly gave me a rather generous angpow, for my wedding she said. She’s like, “Oh, not enough to get you expensive jewelleries but can get earrings…if not, buy a new pair of spectacles for the wedding!”.

I teared up because she didn’t need to and she’s frail and I know she has better use for the money than I am but at that moment she made me feel like the most loved grandchild in the world. I promise I’ll get something beautiful that I could wear on me for always. And I promise to visit her as often as possible. I love my popo so much <3

We left my popo's for Grill Sargeant Lance's home. He made this incredibly awesome pork ribs, which he said he had braised with several cans of beer. OMG they were so delicious, I even get to tarpao some back home, THANK YOU LANCE!!! Speaking of which, I shall heat them up right after publishing this post hehe.

# - Grill Sargeant Lance. Pork ribs between salad and prawns.

Got to try duck bakkua for the first time. Someone on Facebook said it should be called duckkua, hehe. It was quite delicious, but I’d still prefer fatty, fatty pork.

# – No feathers. (See, my eyes senget already cause I can’t tell where the lens is FML).

We played blackjack for several hours and I ended up losing RM5. Since I won RM6.80 at my popo’s earlier, I’m still RM1.80 up hahaha.

HUAT AHHHHHH!!! Have a merry happy chinese new year. Stay positive!

One of my favourite British snacks, besides pork scratchings, is jaffa cake. The half biscuit half cake chocolatey orangey combo is addictive, perfect with a milky mug of hot tea. If you’re the sort of person that likes chocolate and orange together, you’d LOVE jaffa cakes.

# – Jaffa cakes!

Here, I get my jaffa cakes fix from Marks & Spencer but they are just mini jaffa cakes so they finish really quickly :(

# – Mini jaffa cakes from M&S. Picture from pievcake.wordpress.com.

They’ve recently started selling regular sized jaffa cakes but the price is a bit hard to justify so I decided to make my own jaffa cakes!

For the cakes:

2 eggs

50g of caster sugar

50g of plain flour, sieved

For the filling:

1 packet of good quality orange jelly powder

1 tablespoon of orange marmalade

125ml of boiling water

200g of good quality dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids, broken into pieces

# – First pour the orang jelly powder mixture into a measuring jug.

# – Pour the boiling water into it. Stir till powder is all dissolve. Mixture will be very thick, it is normal.

# – Add the orange marmalade and stir again till combined.

# – Pour the jelly mixture into a tray.

# – Chill it in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours.

# – In the meantime, simmer some water in a pot and put a heat proof bowl over it, making sure the water doesn’t touch base of bowl. Beat the sugar and eggs in the bowl until pale and fluffy. It will take about 4-5 minutes.

# – Then, gradually add the sifted flour while still beating the mixture.

# – Pour the batter into a non-stick 12 hole muffin tin, each to about 0.5cm thick. If you don’t have non-stick, make sure the tin’s properly greased and coated with a light dusting of flour.

# – Bake at a preheated temperature of 180 degrees celcius for 8-10 minutes.

# – After baking, allow to cool slightly and remove the cakes with a rubber spatula.

# – Leave them on a rack to cool down completely.

# – When ready to assemble the jaffa cakes, melt the chocolate in a microwave at medium heat for 30 seconds. The chocolate will still look quite solid after you take them out of the microwave but as soon as you stir it, it will become gooey & glossy :)

# – Scoop up some jelly that you’ve made earlier and spread it onto the cakes.

# – Like this.

# – Then, pour the melted chocolate all over the cakes. Chill in the fridge till the chocolate set, about 1/2 hour will do.

# – Eat the jaffa cake.

Obviously, these taste much better than the store-bought stuff. At first I thought 12 were too little, but they lasted between two of us for about a week. You can just eat one and be very satisfied :) Otherwise, multiply the recipe to your liking…hehe.

I believe I’m not the only one that doesn’t like the current Malaysian road tax. The old design was perfectly fine so I don’t know why they did away with it.

The current one looks better I guess and has its own adhesive for sticking onto a windscreen. HOWEVER, nobody warns that removing it would be a pain in the arse.

After a year in the sun, removal of the road tax would mean that it disintegrates with ugly glue marks left behind on the windscreen. In fact when you google Malaysia road tax, you’d be inundated with pictures of tragic road tax removal. Such as these:

# – Tragic 1.

# – Tragic 2.

I know people who just don’t remove an expired road tax at all, because it’s too much hassle. So they just slap on the new one right next to the old one and eventually have 1/2 of their windscreen covered in road taxes. My dad is one such person lol.

After a while, I realised that auto accessories shops like Brother or Eneos do sell plain car stickers for cradling road tax. They also have ones with branding on them but I just prefer plain, transparent ones.

# – Plain car stickers for cradling road tax.

All you have to do is laminate the road tax at a bookshop, put it on top of the plain sticker, then stick it onto the windscreen. Hence, there will be no adhesive contact with your windscreen at all.

# – Laminated road tax.

That said, because I’m so lazy and stingy, I decided that paying RM2.50 to laminate the road tax every year is a bit too steep to pay. Also, it’s such a pain to find parking near my neighbourhood book shop and the girl that works there is one of the slowest people I know exist.

So I came up with a brilliant idea, of which is the point of this blog post:

Ladies and gentleman…clingwrap film! One of the most common item in one’s household hehehe.

# – Roll out some clingwrap film. Using a cloth or paper towel, smooth it down over the surface of a table.

# – Carefully peel off the road tax.

# – Stick it on top of the clingwrap film.

# – Now, lift the clingwrap film off the table.

# – Trim off excess film around the road tax with a scissors.

# – Fold in excess film around the road tax.

# – Clingwrapped road tax, DONE!

# – Now, just slip the clingwrapped road tax into the car sticker and onto the windscreen.

# – Replacing Malaysian road tax without damaging your windscreen, DONE!

And that, ladies & gentlemen, is how Kim sees it.

Women who can look good while cooking. How do they do it?

While they chop, boil and whisk in clean feminine dresses, perfect posture with hair perfectly coiffed & nails perfectly manicured, I am trying to balance multiple beads of sweat on my flat Asian nose hoping they won’t fall into the damned batter.

Even when they are frazzled, they get frazzled so stylishly.

Cue, boyfriend’s shirt falling off the shoulders, revealing just enough.

Cue, single pearl of sweat, which only runs down one’s cleavage but nowhere else.

Cue, clean fingers pushing soft, voluminous hair away from delicate forehead.

HOW DO THEY DO IT? Is there a school that I could go to!?

# – Seriously?

When I cook, I wear the ugliest t-shirt I can get my hands on because I won’t feel bad if it gets soiled.

I do wear boyfriend’s husband’s t-shirts, but only because they’re free and loose and comfortable.

I tie my hair up because it’s warm though I wish it could look fashionable, it doesn’t.

I wear a hairnet so I won’t get poked in the eye by a stray strand while pouring hot liquid into a different bowl.

I wear a bandanna sometimes to prevent my sweat from contaminating the food.

Have I mentioned that I wear a hairnet?

# – A scene of horror. Pic from Huai Bin.

Please tell me I’m not alone -_-

+++

Gawd everytime I scroll down and see the kitchen picture above I freak myself out. So here’s one where I don’t freak myself out so much :P