Twinklestar's Favourite Corner: June 2010

Rice Dumpling Festival Pot Luck Dinner Celebration

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Rice Dumpling Festival or Dragon Boat Festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the chinese lunar calendar and the festive was celebrate amongst the Chinese. I had took this opportunity to invite a few friends back to our place to have a pot luck dinner and also for them to sample the rice dumplings that we had made over the weekend.

Each of us had bought different varieties of food for the dinner. Since changing job, I have lesser time to actually cook. Thus for an easy way out, is to 'tar pau' food items and invite friends over with the theme 'Pot Luck'. Hehe.. (Lame excuses rite.... :p). Wanna know what we had over the dinner? We had lots and lots of food and as usual we were practically stuffed maximum before the dinner ends..... ^Burp burp burp^.....

Pork Satay from PJ Old Town Food Court.

Hokkien Mee from Restoran Damansara Hokkien Mee in Uptown

Roast Duck from the famous Loong Foong Restaurant in PJ

Yong Tau Fu from somewhere in Kelana Jaya area

More Yong Tau Fu items

Donashi from Big Apple Donuts

So we had an enjoyable time over the dinner. More pot luck session in the future? I think so... Will try to do it more often especially during festival celebration to create more sense of togetherness as nowadays everyone was really busy with work and own activities.. :)

So for the rest of my readers, I wished you all

'HAPPY RICE DUMPLING FESTIVAL'

Betty's Midwest Kitchen

Sunday, June 13, 2010

This was a backdated post for the month of May. I was looking thru friend's picture on some eateries and found this small gem - Betty's Midwest Kitchen which offers American food. What else after looking at their yummylicious picture, Hubby and I invited our usual 'Makan Kakis' aka CW and LYH for dinner. Note: Please come early if you don't want to wait as the restaurant has limited tables.

So we were there early around 6.20pm. Luckily for us, the restaurant was not packed yet. As we were seated, the diners crowd had started to come in. Phew phew! Lucky for us to be a bit early. The ambience in the restaurant was kinda homely. Pictures and paintings related to America were displayed there and did I mentioned that they served PORK as well. Yummy yummy..

Their menu.

Lemonade - RM 2.50

Root Beer (RM5) - it's recommended according to the menu but I had tasted it, nothing special. It's similar like any Root Beer served outside.

Dog Food aka Gravy Fries (RM7.50) - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It's so cheeselicious and delicious.

Classical Meatloaf (RM15) - recommended. It's tender and every bit of it was filled with Meat, Meat and Meat.

Pork Chop with C. Gravy (RM20) - CW commented it was okay.

Pork Chop with Apple Sauce (RM20) - LYH don't quite like the taste. Maybe because it was a bit sweet to his preference. For those who love apple crumble, the sauce tasted similar.

Jucy Lucy (RM13.50) - RECOMMENDED. Nice and juicy pork patty.

The verdict: Recommended for western food lovers who wanted a great meal without a 'damaging' price tag. I WILL COME FOR MORE!

Betty's Midwest Kitchen

A-G-40, Jln PJU 1/43,

Aman Suria Damansara,

47301 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor.

03-78800196

Hokkien Fried Glutinous Rice Dumpling

Duanwu Festival ( 端午節), also known as Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional and statutory holiday associated with Chinese and other East Asian and Southeast Asian societies as well. For this year, Duanwu Festival falls on 16th June 2010. We had been making our own Chang for the past 2 years, so this year was no exceptional too. Since we had some hands on experience in making Chang previously, the process of making them this year was much more easier. I felt I am getting slightly better in wrapping them, but they still looks very 'odd' to me. In terms of taste wise, the Chang are tastier as compared to the 1st and 2nd batches that we made previously. Words of compliments should be given to my dear Hubby as he is getting more expert in wrapping the Chang. His Chang looked more like those we bought from outside. Thus, I had told him, for next year, I'll be doing all the preparations of the fillings and glutinous rice and he shall be fully in charge for wrapping it.. Hehe... (Not bad idea rite).. :P

So ladies and gentlemen,

let me present to you.....

Our 2010 Chang..........

Hokkien Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings

Fillings consists of Pork Belly, Skinned Green Beans, Chestnuts, Mushrooms, Chinese Sausages, Dried Shrimps and Salted Egg Yolk

Ingredients

800g glutinous rice

200g skinned green beans

bamboo leaves and strings

(A)

3 tbsp oil

8 cloves garlic, chopped

10 shallots, chopped

2 star anise

4 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp 5 spice powder

2 tsp pepper

4 tsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

4 tsp sugar

4 tsp salt

(B)

1 tsp 5 spice powder

1 tsp pepper powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp rice wine

4 tsp dark soy sauce

Fillings

500g pork belly

24 chestnuts

24 mushrooms, soaked

50g dried shrimps

2 Chinese Sausages

24 salted egg yolks

Methods

Preparation for glutinous rice and skinned green beans: Rinse both separately. Soak separately for 5 hours and drain.
For A: Heat up oil. Stir fry garlic, shallots and star anise till fragrant. Add in oyster sauce and stir fry till fragrant. Add in glutinous rice and stir well. Add in 5 spice powder and pepper, stir fry till fragrant. Add in remaining seasoning and stir evenly. Set aside.
Rinse pork belly and cut into 24 pieces. Season with B, put in fridge overnight.
Soak chestnuts overnight. Pick out skin from slot.
Soak mushrooms overnight. Trim the stems. Rinse and squeeze out water.
Rinse dried shrimps and soak in water for 15 minutes. Heat up some oil, stir-fry till fragrant. Dish out and set aside.
Rinsed salted egg yolk and drained.
Wrapping: Overlap 2 bamboo leaves, placed the longer leaf below the shorter. Hold up leaves with hands, fold 1/3 of leaves to form corn shape. Fill cone with a layer of glutinous rice, add in skinned green beans and other fillings in correct sequences and cover with a layer of skinned green beans. Lastly place a layer of glutinous rice and press tightly. Wrap and secure with strings.
Base a pot with few bamboo leaves, add in 2 tsp salt and water. Bring to boil with the dumplings. Switch to medium heat and continue boiling for approximately 2 hours.

Osaka Japanese Restaurant

Saturday, June 5, 2010

We were constantly having chinese food since we have shifted to Setia Alam. For a change, we opted for Japanese food as our lunch over the weekend. Since I had google for recommended Japanese food in Klang and found Osaka Japanese Restaurant, we decided to give this place a try. Osaka Japanese Restaurant was located in Bandar Baru Klang, just next to the HSBC Bank.

Once we were arrived, we were greeted by their friendly staffs. The restaurant was not too big in size but it was still cosy enough for us. After looking thru their menus, we had ordered quite a number of items to try out. Each of us had ordered a bento set, mine (Sashimi & Tempura Bento Set) and Hubby's (Unagi Bento Set). Both set comes with Chawan Mushi and also Dessert. The other items that we had ordered were their Chef recommendation sushi - Black Dragon and also Soft Shell Crab Sushi.

Overall, the food items are fresh and delicious. Will definitely go for next visit when we were craving for some nice Japanese food in the neighbourhood. By the way, they seems to have 10% discounts for all the food items. For those who stays in this area and would love to try out some decent Japanese food, do give it a try.