Gardening World - Roselle a.k.a. Hibiscus plant

This was a gift, from a friend who has been following my blog throughout these years. Thanks a lot for the plant and the support, knowing that I was earlier looking around for such plant. It caught my attention some years ago when I bought a packet of this from Cameron Highlands, I then saw it grown in a village home at Papan, Perak some time ago.

This was the first fruit on the tree.

And such, how it bloom from its flower to fruit.

The tree had grown up after over 4-5 months time, but rather it is still young, staying not very strong on its branch. It is time for harvest!

Ta-daaaa... here are the harvested roselle fruits from the tree today. Not a lot, enough for my cuppa roselle tea. :)

I always find it with great success joy, whenever I could harvest fruits that I planted. Especially when I know they are all grown organically... save the planet, save our earth!

DIY - Mix Grain Bread with Noxxa BreadMaker

Bake a bread, yes! It was my first attempt to try baking a bread out with a bread maker machine. I seriously lazy to squeeze dough out from the start. Thus, bread maker has been always my dream machine in the kitchen, but I had never think of making that investment as I am in doubt I will fully utilize it. Glad to know, I have had taken over an under utilized bread maker, I would think it has been almost 5-6 years old, at least. Nevertheless, I let it utilize again, prevent waste!

A friend told me, he has never seen a front loaded bread maker... here you go with the picture! Noxxa, an obsolete model (I believe) bread maker, by Amway.

Alright, all started with the ingredient preparations. Besides bread flour, I had choose to mix them with this Alpine Grain pre-mix flour with Sunflower seeds and other flakes and seeds.

The portion made by :-

• 800g Bread flour
• 200g Apline Grain mix
• 275ml water
• 2 1/2 tbs dried yeast
• 2 ts vegetable oil
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 ts table salt
• little scoop of butter to the site

1. Mixed flour & dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add water into the bread maker steel bowl
3. Add vegetable oil
4. Pour flour mix into the bread maker steel bowl, float on top the water
5. Place dried yeast into the top middle of flour mix, stay away from water or butter
6. Place scoop of butter at 4 sites of the steel bowl
7. Press to bake! (follow manufacturer instructions)

My bread up tall in the machine after 3 hours.

A friend asked why the top crust was cracked... as you can see, that is the disadvantage of a front loaded bake maker. If the bread happened to stay taller than it should, it will not be able to come out nicely from the machine. I practically have to push them down with a bread knife before I was able to bring them out from the oven.

Anyway, it was great to have a home made bread. I was satisfied with the result, but was not satisfied with the bread texture. It was just heavier than it should, and a bit too moist (at my taste). I was glad that friends most tasted it well and good. Most importantly - healthy!

Food Surprises - Taiwanese Taro dessert @ QQ Snow Mix, Sri Petaling

It was so happened we stumbled into Sri Petaling on the way home one evening. Thinking if we could find some good and special food for dinner. Unfortunately, the place around has still been 'alien' to us, where not much that we able to give it a try, as most are chain stores available else where too.

In such, I so happened saw this Taiwanese dessert store. Was wondering if this is another chain store like wise Gong Cha & Cha Time (Bubble tea) or even Snowflake where one can find many branches and store around Klang Valley these days. 2nd thought, what is the relation of this with this pioneer yet famous Snowflake Taiwanese taro dessert? Oh well, I would know if I should classified them as competitor or imitator. It's all depends which one one likes most, it is all depends on one's taste bud, seriously. I can't compare as I am not a very big fan of those commercial desserts, in which I will crave for it every now and then.

Checked out their official website - http://www.qqsnowmix.com/, looks like they are just the one and only branch (so far). Most servings are about the same, even the pickup machine.

Address:
No. 149, Jalan Radin Bagus,
Sri Petaling 57000,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel:
+603-9058-8133 / +6017-635-4013

What attracted me of new food, is the value of me trying it out self DIY homemade recipe, and probably make them out in volume or to share with friends and families... haha :)

Look what we had experimented at home after Snowflake's visit.... ta-da...

I was able to cut them into similar cube shape! Served in some Chinese dessert, like this....

QQ ball recipe & making methods:-

1) Glutinous Rice flour (40%), Potato Starch (10%), Yam or Sweet Potato (50%)

2) Mix ingredient well with glass of cold water

3) Add pinch of sugar for yam mix

4) Mix well into dough, roll them into a stick and cut into small cubes

5) Boil them in water, sieve them up when it float. Rinse them over room temperature water before add them into dessert soup.

Happy trying...

Food Surprises - Perlama Seafood, Port Klang

This had been the pending food post, in which the place had made me visited twice in the month of September! Gosh, I am not a giant eater, but there is no excuse to make if the 1st time visit made a good impression over the food taste. But frankly, I didn't feel as tasty at the 2nd visit, probably the portion we had was not as "huge" as the 1st time.

Anyway, it is still a worth recommended place if you do not mind to travel up to somewhere near Port Klang.

At my 1st visit, this little puppy greeted me well, enough with his other siblings and parents.

What to expect besides seafood at this restaurant? You will know further more as we go along this page. An evening sunset view is just well available from the dinner table, overlooking one of the Port's bridge. The restaurant is located beside the river bank of Sungai Klang or Sungai Selangor (not too sure!).

Alright... moving on to the normal yet tasty seafood. I like the fried baby octopus, it was so crunchy and fresh.

Some fried chicken stuff, can't remember what flavor was that, could be kam-heong.

Went on with steamed prawn. Some said it was a bit tasteless, to me it was just nice. Probably the prawn was not huge enough.

Assam ikan pari fish was awesome! Love its taste and vegetables.... *drool*.

La-la soup, added with fried chopped garlic, tasted good!

Finally, the MUST .... crab! We ordered 2 flavor, one was salted egg fried crab and another was sweet & sour crab which comes well with bun. The bun was absolutely good too, look at the texture in the picture below, looks rich but was soft! I personally like the salted egg fried crab the most, guess I didn't touch the sweet & sour type. Nevertheless, both was good.

That was my left over.... all crab & lala's shell.

OK... there is another specialty of this restaurant, which one should not miss. Claypot Seafood Porridge! It was so tasty, and we went ordered this even after we finished our crabs meal.

Address:

No. 6, Jalan Tangki,

Off Jln Kem (quite near to South Port),

42000 Port Klang, Selangor.

Tel:

012 331 9908 / 019 270 5585 (Recommend to reserve, open for lunch too)

GPS Coordinate:

N2.99029 E101.39958

Direction:

Go to Port Klang as though you are going to South Port but at the main traffic light turn left as though going towards West Port, But don’t go up ram, follow the slip road below the flyover and at the round-about (below the fly-over) turn about 3/4 and follow the slip until you see the signboard Perlama Bak Kut Teh.

Food Surprises - TYPICA (豆原）Cafe, Shaw Parade Pudu KL

Guess it is gonna be a trend soon, such in such for coffee lovers! I would say I am rather happy to discover such a coffee place from a friend. It had been long time I have been eyeing onto Taiwanese styled coffee place, the peace, the ever 'detail effort' one could feel from the heart - 由心出發，由心感應。

Introducing this very little coffee place at Shaw Parade Pudu, KL. We actually stumbled into this place during a lunch visit last week. It was so happened one of them read about this place some time some where.

Without hesitation, we tried. I am not an extreme coffee lover, but I love to try and taste new stuffs. Down especially if we could 'feel' the food from our 'heart'.

Some quick introduction of the coffee place setup. The bench below strucked my attention. Checking up their official website, even the bench has its own story behind. Check it out here.

We learned, what's Siphon Coffee. It looks complicated, but rather it has its own art and scientific reasons being making an aromatic coffee. Of course, a quality coffee beans play its own role as well. No wonder a cuppa coffee could cost from lower ranges of RM5 up to RM150! It was interesting... if you are a curious learner. :)

This was my own Rose Tea Coffee with honey... it was sooooo tasty. Full of aroma and effortless feel.

Lastly, some quick introduction of their very own famous Yam and Mango sliced cake. Indeed, it was tasty especially the Yam cake!

Check it out if you are interested. Taste and feel every single bits and pieces of it. Besides having good buddy(ies), you gonna have the ability to real enjoy every bits of taste, just like enjoying every single bits of your life, your journey. And, most importantly TIME.

Understand the place is usually pack during weekends. So, plan yourself in case you wanna check this out.

Typica Coffee Enterprise
GL-08, GF, Shaw Parade
Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah
55100 Kuala Lumpur

http://typicacafe.blogspot.com

Tel: +603-2145 0328 / +6019-294 9282

Business Hours
Sun-Thu : 11am - 9pm
Fri-Sat : 11am - 10pm

Food Surprises - Thim Kee Tilapia Fish stall @ Pudu, KL

Had the fish from this stall for the past many years. Yet, it is not always we got the chance to dine here. It is either the timing not right, or there is no excuse for us to travel down to KL on a weekend, a place we have to bare with the entire weekday.

I specially like the deep fried sauced fish... if and only if the afternoon weather is ever soothing, it will be nice to have the whole fish by myself (yo! sure or not?). Oh well, it is surely impossible. The place is rather improper, stall location is just in front of a cornered 7-11 convenient store at Pudu.

Here I present you the 2 fishes we had. One was deep fried, another was steamed double-sauced (鴛鴦). Based on some other blog, they do serve other seafood and meat too. So, just in case you wish to have more variety, check out others sites.

This is quite comprehensive, http://kyspeaks.com/2010/10/10/thim-kee-steamed-fish-tilapia-at-pudu/, with map and GPS coordinates too.

Encourage to call before visit. They open only day time, not sure if any of the day is close. We tried night before, and it was another stall that operates at that location, not this.

Address:-

Thim Kee Steamed Fish

Jalan 1/177c, off Jalan Pudu,

55100 Kuala Lumpur

GPS: 3.136585, 101.713824

Tel: 03-3986 3097

Biz Trip - Hong Kong, Aug 24-27 2011

Before I start my blogging spirit with the very eventful September 2011, guess I did missed out my August business trip to Hong Kong. Nothing special to share, using this as an excuse to keep a nice diary for myself....

As usual, business trip is nothing special for me. I would rather go for an eventful and self plan free & easy personal trip. How I wish - I would go HK Disney, dine in at the HK hill top restaurant, walk and walk around the streets, and most importantly -- Shopping!! Unfortunately, I missed out all those. Nevertheless, it is still nice to be out from the norm once a while, though working can be stressful.

In fact, I have been to Hong Kong many years ago. In this trip, I was walking through the memories on how I get myself to the hotel and office once again. Tsing Yi (青衣）is the port terminal place where you will not miss if you take the rapid train to the city.

Next, I checked in myself to Renaissance HarbourView Hotel at Wan Chai. The sky was blue on day 1 I arrived. Too bad, it was still summer and I had to bare with the heat out there.

Pacific coffee, a very popular chain coffeeshop in Hong Kong. They recently had a few outlet here in KL too. Had my very late lunch here, nearest I could find around my hotel. Honestly, I almost got myself lost around the corners and overhead bridges connecting most the surrounding buildings. I had been relying on my previous memory plus some Hong Kong series location identicator, e.g. Wan Chai Tower, where most civil court case take place & Star Jetty, etc... And by the way, the pork sandwich served here was fabulous.

I didn't get to visit another happening place in Hong Kong island the last trip I was here. It's CausewayBay, Tong Luo Wan (铜锣湾 ). A colleague told me its nearby my office, recalling my memory, a friend actually did told me the same too. Well, guess what? We walked all the way from Wan Chai to Causeway Bay for dinner. But worse thing was -- it was summer at 36C!! Super hot... and we squeezed ourselves into the air-con restaurant, considered a famous HK coffee shop (茶餐廳). It had always been my likely to taste local delicacies, as well as observe the surroundings lifestyle.

Dinner at Chui Wah Restaurant (翠華餐廳), my fried fish skin noodle + piggy bun (豬仔包), in actual is just a normal bun toasted with butter & condensed milk. Indeed tasty, but having it as dinner sounds a bit weirdo. Anyway, I was glad my friend brought me to such local places to explore.

Next, it was dessert time! It was just the right time to chill with snowy icy mango from a famous dessert chain store, 許留山。

The next and couple day next of my stay was gloomy! See how much difference it looked like over the harbour.

Following days, I had my breakfast at the very same coffeeshop almost everyday :) Tried each of their set breakfast meal, typical Hong Kong styled. A noticed some special dish, which we don't get it here. Macaroni, pasta based noodle was served soupy with canned pork (肉丁). Gosh, this gave me more idea and variaties for my everyday meal at home. This place was at HK Convention Center's Harbour Kitchen.

I then used my dinner time to explore the other side of the island, Tsim Sha Tsui. I took the ferry ride, which cost me only HK$2.50 each ride. Explored the very owned cheesy baked rice, just like what I always like at Kim Gary. Taste not bad. The typical crowded coffeeshop will have the 'sitting' instructions -- couple please be seated at the same side, particularly during peak hour (see signage in Mandrin below).

This was the only street scenery I took while I was wondering the streets around Tsim Sha Tsui. And the every famous opposite island view of Hong Kong (all by my cute little compact camera).

Other than that, I tried fast food too! Here's this lotus leave rice (荷葉飯) served in a chain store (namely 大家樂) for breakfast set. It was just too much for me. Tasted good too.

Lastly, it was time to say buy before boarding into Cathay Pacific airway. Flight was delayed for 2+ hours, and I was truly exhausted that evening. In general, I had a fulfilling business trip, though the work was though, but the feel of getting things moved and done was an extremely good feeling.

Hong Kong, hope to see you in next trip... I will make sure its gonna be a leisure trip. :)